Bourne End

St John the Evanglist, lnk, not terribly interesting apart from being thought to be one of Scott's first churches.

In the 1850s the village of Bourne End was in the parish of Northchurch, and the Rector of Northchurch, the Rev Sir John Culme Seymour, had felt for some time that the outlying parishioners living to the east of Berkhamsted should have their own place of worship. In March 1852 he had a meeting with the then owner of Berkhamsted Hall, Thomas Halsey, to discuss the building of a Chapel of Ease for those parishioners.

The Rector engaged the architect G Gilbert Scott who later became the most commercially successful practitioner of the Gothic Revival Style, designing such famous buildings as the Albert Memorial and St Pancras Station Hotel. This is believed to be one of the first churches he designed. The builder was Mr Harris of Berkhamsted. Work commenced in May 1853 and the building was consecrated by the Bishop of Rochester on May 23rd 1855.

The stained glass windows were designed by Alfred Bell and made by Powells in 1854. They depict scenes from the life of Christ featuring the Nativity and Baptism in the NE window and the Crucifixion and Ascension in the SE window. They were particularly good examples of his work. Unfortunately in February 2001 four of the panels were stolen. Exact replacements of these were able to be made from good photographic records of the originals.

The completed building and furniture had cost £1439-7s-6d and this was chiefly paid for by the Rector; but the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, who was Patron of the Living by virtue of the land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall in the Parish, donated £100.

Missed by both.

Flickr.