Importance of religious buildings to heritage of Rickmansworth area

In this series we’ve been looking at important buildings and other parts of our ‘townscapes’. But few buildings are as prominent as our churches. What’s the story of where people have followed their faith in Three Rivers?

Since about 850 the predominant religion around here was Christianity. The church was heavily influenced by Rome, where the Pope was the leader: but much more local arrangements were needed to integrate religious observance and the rule of the King. Abbeys, dioceses and parishes looking after the first and Parliament, counties, hundreds and manors the second, under the King’s direction and the law of the land. Most of the old churches, and many of the ruins, that we have today date from that time, before the Reformation from about 1530. And so our churches at Sarratt, Abbots Langley and Rickmansworth all date from well before that time (although St Mary’s Rickmansworth has been rebuilt twice) – each parish had a single parish church, to which most people walked.

St Peter’s church, Mill End (1875). Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society

In this country things changed when Henry VIII fell out with the Pope from 1529, and took advantage of the wave of opposition to the Pope spreading across Europe. The Reformation was the result: but there was still only one church, the Church of England, with the monarch as its head. It was illegal, and severely punished, to publicly follow any other path - Judaism included. Pretty well all religious buildings were Church of England ones – or had been flattened.

St John Fisher RC church, Chorleywood, in a 1906 house designed by the architect Charles Voysey and acquired for the church in 1953. Image: Three Rivers Museum/F Hiscock

Then in 1689 the Act of Toleration allowed ‘dissent’ from Anglicanism, and allowed Quakers and other groups at least to exist, although their members were often prevented from holding public offices. It remained illegal to be Catholic (‘papist’), though, until 1791, and the Jewish faith was heavily oppressed.

Rickmansworth Baptist Church (1843). Image: Three Rivers Museum/F Hiscock

The rise of Methodism in the 1830s was very strong in this area, partly as a local protest against a vicar of Rickmansworth who retained for himself a lot of the wealth of his church but hired poor curates to do the work. But it was during the 19th century that non-conformist buildings began to appear (the Rickmansworth Baptist church dates from 1843): ‘Emancipation’ of Catholics in 1829 and of Jews in 1859 allowed them, at least in theory, to take part in public and civil life, and Catholic churches (at least partly for the Irish immigrants) began to appear as well as non-conformist chapels and churches. There are also a number of small ‘private’ chapels, such as at South Oxhey.

Oxhey Chapel, built by Sir James Altham in 1612. Image: Three Rivers Museum

And so we came to have the wealth of church buildings that we have today – the more recent arrival of Asian and Middle Eastern religions and buildings adds an extra richness to that tapestry, although not much in Three Rivers. But what did it mean for the people, especially in the 19th century?

St Thomas’s, West Hyde (1845). Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society

Most were expected to be, or at least appear to be, Anglican, but plenty of options developed: and the parish ‘vestry’ connected to but not part of the parish ‘church’ remained the local government until the 1870s. Many provided schools; they met, as they still do, a range of social needs, from concerts and meeting halls to beer festivals.

St John’s church, Heronsgate (1864). Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society

As we might expect, some people found their religious practice more appealing than others, just as some will have used the pub more than others. But the growth of the population made it inevitable that new Anglican parishes would be split off from the old central ones – so new parishes were established in the 1860s and 1870s, as St Albans Abbey became a cathedral: Mill End and West Hyde, Croxley Green, Heronsgate, Langleybury and (later) South Oxhey. The care of the people demanded it.

St Paul’s Church, Langleybury (1864), built for the Langleybury estate.

Our photos offer some reminders of the great range of Christian religious buildings in our area, most (not all, as at Chorleywood) purpose built. Whatever your own beliefs, they form a vital part of our heritage.