PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY
In 1672 Joseph Brown, who had been ejected from
the vicarage of Nazeing in
1662, was licensed to
minister to a congregation of Presbyterians at
Loughton. (fn. 2)
On 3 October 1813 a small nonconformist chapel
was opened at the south end of High Road. The
preachers at the opening were the Revds. J. Hughes of
Battersea, J. Clayton of Camomile Street, London
(E.C. 3), and G. Collinson of Walthamstow. (fn. 3) In
1817 Samuel Brawn, formerly of Stepney Academy,
was ordained minister. (fn. 4) The church supported the
Baptist Union, though it was not at first affiliated to it. (fn. 5)
Brawn remained until 1868. (fn. 6) In 1829 he reported a
congregation of 175. (fn. 7) A new church was built in
1860-1. It cost £1,800, of which £1,400 had already
been raised by the opening day. (fn. 8) This was attended in
the 1860's by W. T. Whitley, later a distinguished
Baptist minister and historian. He gave some of his
reminiscences of the church in 'A Scenario of Baptist
Essex'. (fn. 9) He mentioned the arrival of a new minister
(W. Bentley, 1868) to help Samuel Brawn. The old
minister watched his assistant from an armchair on the
platform, 'snorting at any questionable doctrine'.
Whitley helped to collect for the church soup kitchen.
His mother did missionary work among the gipsies of
Epping Forest.
In 1880 the church had 193 members and 210
Sunday school children, with a minister and two
evangelists. (fn. 10) It was and remains one of the strongest
nonconformist churches in the district. Membership
was 181 in 1900 and the Sunday school had risen to
356. (fn. 11) In 1920 there were 211 members. (fn. 12) A decline
to 164 in 1930 has subsequently been reversed and in
1951 there were 181 members and 143 pupils. (fn. 13)
Except for brief vacancies there has always been a
resident minister. Although still closely connected
with the Baptist Union the church is now a united
free church, known as Loughton Union Church.
Associated with the church are the Lincoln Almshouses. (fn. 14) Henry Lincoln, by his will proved in 1912,
left £1,300 in trust to build five small almshouses to
be let at low rents to people over 50 years old who had
attended the church for the past ten years. The almshouses were built opposite the church. The sum of
£99 17s. was received during the Second World War
in local savings weeks, and the income from this,
together with £20 16s. in rents from four cottages, and
with donations, brought in £116 11s. 4d. in 1950. It
was all spent on repairs and maintenance.
The founder of Methodism in Loughton was
Edward Pope, who came to the district in 1873, when
the nearest Methodist church was at Wanstead. (fn. 15) In
that year he took over a small disused chapel in Englands
Lane. (fn. 16) Among the first converts were Mr. and Mrs.
Fred Smith, whose nephews later became the famous
gipsy evangelists. The chapel was placed on the plan
of the Hackney (Wesleyan) Methodist circuit in 1874
and five years later became part of the newly formed
Wanstead and Woodford circuit. In 1880 land was
purchased on a more central site in Forest Road, and
an iron church erected there, at a total cost of £697.
In 1885 the land was sold for £250 and a new site in
the High Road was bought for £300. The iron church
soon proved inadequate and in 1903 a new brick
church with a schoolroom was built for £3,300, of
which £1,000 was borrowed from an insurance
company. This church was opened in 1903 (see plate
facing p. 113).
In 1934 the minister at Buckhurst Hill (see Chigwell) was transferred to Loughton at the request of the
latter church. In 1934 also it was decided to build a
new hall behind the church on land given nine years
before by Sir Joseph Lowrey. (fn. 17) The hall was opened
in 1936. It cost £3,880, of which £2,024 were
raised by donations. In 1944 it was totally destroyed
by a bomb, and other church premises were badly
damaged.
In 1946 further land was bought and a scheme was
drawn up for the rebuilding of the hall. The work
was to be done in three stages. The second of these
was completed in June 1952, when the new Wesley
Hall was opened. The present (1953) membership
of the church is 159. The church is of red brick in
gothic style. The chapel in England's Lane still exists,
having been converted into dwellings called Kirk
Cottages. It is a small building of stock brick probably
dating from the middle of the 19th century and somewhat similar in appearance to the former Congregational Chapel at Abridge (in Lambourne, q.v.). (fn. 18)
In June 1946, on the recommendation of the
Methodist General Purposes Committee, it was
decided to negotiate for a site on the new London
County Council estate at Debden. In 1949 a trust was
formed and in 1950 land was offered by the L.C.C.
for £785. The first part of the building, costing
£7,000, was opened in July 1952. The money came
from compensation for a bombed church in Walthamstow. In March 1953 it was decided to apply for a
deaconess. The church is at present under the supervision of the Loughton minister and has a membership of 19.
Soon after the Methodists moved to Forest Road
their former chapel in England's Lane was taken over
by the Baptists, who held services there under the
leadership of James Herbert Tee, a local solicitor, from
1884 to 1889. (fn. 19) About the same time Anglican mission
services were being held by Mrs. John Pelly in a room
over the coach house at Goldings Hill House. These
services were primarily for poor people who might
have hesitated to attend a regular place of worship
owing to lack of suitable clothes. About 1887 Mrs.
Pelly left Loughton and her congregation transferred
to the Englands Lane chapel. In 1889 J. H. Tee and
his associates erected the present iron church at the
corner of Englands Lane and Goldings Hill. The
trust deeds of the new church made strict provision
that the Goldings Hill Mission should be undenominational in character. Tee remained superintendent of
the mission until his death in 1909. He has had
several successors, of whom Mr. E. S. Currey (c.
1925-40) was superintendent for the longest period.
Other nonconformist places of worship are the
Forest Mission Hall, High Beech Road, belonging to
the Plymouth Brethren and the Lincoln Hall, built in
1912 and presented to the Loughton Brotherhood by
Henry Lincoln. (fn. 20) A Congregational church is now
(1953) being built in Borders Lane, Debden, with support from the Loughton Union Church. (fn. 21)