Epping URC is one of the oldest non-conformist churches in Essex where there have been services on the same site in Lindsey Street since 1625, originally in an old barn or malting house. It is thought that the vicar of the parish, Reverend Jeremy Dyke began services here for the benefit of those who were unable to go to the old parish church at Epping Upland. In the first title deed dated 1653, there is mention of a meeting house with no date as to when it had been built, but apparently displacing the old barn or malting house. In 1774 a new building was constructed with the Rev. Sam Saunders giving an interesting account of its construction:
“The old meeting house in at Epping in the county of Essex- very much decay’d- it was thought proper to take it down and to erect a new one. A committee was appointed viz John Green, Francis Milton, John Pressland, John Archer Rich, Lee W Archer, Michael Allen and Edmund Prentise the last mentioned seldom or ever acted being at such a distance from Epping. According to their agreement, the old meeting house was begun to be pulled down on Monday the fourteenth of March 1774. The Rev Sam Saunders the minister at Epping being appointed sole manager and director in ordering the building and overseeing the workmen with the first brick being laid by Rev. Sam Saunders on twenty fourth day of March in the year of our lord 1774. And what is scarce credible to relate tho at such time of year when unsettled weather is to be expected, yet from laying the first brick to finishing the superstructure and striking the scaffolding the workmen were not hindered half an hour. So that the whole building was completed in one month and one day…”
The new building included an elaborately carved doorway and mouldings outside and a heavy pulpit with a massive carving and square pews for ‘family worship’, three galleries were also added, one for the use of young ladies, one for the poor and one for singers and musicians. In 1780, the new chapel was put into a trust which was found to have been mortgaged for £200 apparently to the Rev. Samuel Saunders who had recently died, with a new trust-deed found in 1790. During a Sunday school meeting one day in 1839, six young men who were missionary students from Ongar walked in and preached to the church with one of them being David Livingstone, the great African explorer and missionary. In 1845, an adjoining school room was built on the site of a cottage and stable and was used for thirty years by the British School. The corner stone had been laid in March 1845 by Samuel Gurney Esq with the room being opened by Mr Ince MP and it is now laid in the church garden. In 1887 the whole building underwent complete restoration and considerable extension which included a large gothic front and new organ.
In 1920, Dame Margaret Lloyd George, wife of the Prime Minister unveiled a window and tablet at the church in memory of members killed in the First World War. The unveiling proved to be a great success. The minutes of a meeting of Church members described it as a “red letter day in our Church’s history”. Mrs Lloyd George arrived late as she had lost her way travelling from Enfield. The service was conducted by the Revd Locke. Replying to a welcoming speech by Revd Locke, Mrs Lloyd George said: “I am very grateful to the members of Epping Congregational Church for allowing me to take part in this solemn and sacred service. It is a privilege rather than a pleasure.”
Dame Lloyd George returned to the church as special guest in 1925 to celebrate the churches 300th anniversary.
During the 1960s, the left wing of the church was taken down and replaced by new buildings containing sunday school rooms, a kitchen and toilets. At the same time the gravestones outside the front were removed with some being used for a path.
In 1972 the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales joined to form the United Reformed Church. In 1981 the Re-formed Association of Churches of Christ in Great Britain also joined, followed in 2000 by the Congregational Union of Scotland
Between 1972 and 1976 our minister was the Rev. Bryn Austin Rees who wrote the well known hymns ‘The God we seek beyond all thought’, ‘The kingdom of God’ and ‘Have faith in God, my heart.’
By the 1990s the building was becoming dilapidated and difficult to maintain and so it was decided to knock it down and build a new building with the exception of the old school room which became the new sanctuary. The new building was opened on 21st June 1997.
In 2008, we became twinned with Mbare Presbyterian church in Zimbabwe and both Lindsey and Jason have since visited and in 2014 a delegation from the Zimbabwean Presbytery visited us.
For a more in depth read of our history click here: History of Epping URC
List of Ministers
- Rev Jeremiah Dyke 1625-1639
- Mr Rochester 1634
- Mr Wilkinson 1642
- Mr Harper 1650
- Mr Holbeck 1662
- Rev Nathaniel Ball 1672- 1681
- Richard Haylies 1672
- William Smith 1690
- Henry Dent 1693
- Samual Bourne 1715
- John Nettleton 1718 or 1726- 1755
- Zechariah Hubbard 1755
- Peter Good 1759-1767
- Rev Samuel Saunders 1770
- William Evans Bishop 1780
- James Gill 1791- 1799
- Willam Saunders 1800
- Christopher Muston 1802
- Archibald Bell 1809
- William Beck 1816
- Rev Joseph Alcott 1817- 1833
- Rev Stephen Bannister 1833-1839
- Josiah Chapman 1841
- George Dempster Mudie 1843-1847
- Rev Samuel Chancellor 1848-1853
- Rev John Teasdale Davis 1854- 1881
- Rev Frederick Wagstaffe 1883-1884
- Rev Charles Wright 1884-1898
- Mr H.E Nutter 1899
- Rev George Dent 1901- 1906
- Rev Rhys Williams 1907-1910
- Rev Jonathan Calvert 1911
- Rev Leslie Parkin 1912-1913
- Rev John Herbert Locke 1914- 1930
- William Simpson 1933-1934
- Rev Thomas Lewis 1935-1941
- Colin Richards 1958-1959
- Rev Frank Anthony Shield 1959- 1965
- Rev John P Carroll 1966- 1971
- Rev Bryn Austin Rees 1972- 1976
- Rev Leslie Clarke 1976-1981
- Rev Frank Jones 1981- 1992
- Rev Jane Taylor 1992-1999
- Rev Raymond Garfoot 1999-2006
- Rev Dr Jason Askew 2007-2016
- Rev Cecil White 2018-2022
- Rev Karen Knight 2024- present
Epping United Reformed Church 