page_title: Waltham Abbey Church
section_title: Later architectural history
hierarchical_section_title: Waltham Abbey Church / History / Later architectural history
caption_attribution_description: English: Waltham Abbey, Essex. East Wall and ceiling
context_page_description: The Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross and St Lawrence is the parish church of the town of Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. It has been a place of worship since the 7th century. The present building dates mainly from the early 12th century and is an example of Norman architecture. To the east of the existing church are traces of an enormous eastward enlargement of the building, begun following the re-foundation of the abbey in 1177. In the Late Middle Ages, Waltham was one of the largest church buildings in England and a major site of pilgrimage; in 1540 it was the last religious community to be closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It is still an active parish church for the town.
  The monastic buildings and those parts of the church east of the crossing were demolished at the Dissolution, and the Norman crossing tower and transepts collapsed in 1553. The present-day church consists of the nave of the Norman abbey church, the 14th-century lady chapel and west wall, and a 16th-century west tower, added after the dissolution.
  King Harold Godwinson, who died at the Battle of Hastings, is said to be buried in the present churchyard.
context_section_description: In 1553, shortly after the demolition of the 12th-century choir, crossing and chancel, the 11th-century Norman tower at the east end of the nave collapsed. It was replaced by a new tower at the opposite end of the church, abutting the 14th century west wall and straddling the main doorway. Work commenced in 1556 and was completed in the following year; it was the only church tower built in England during the reign of Queen Mary I.
  In 1859 the architect William Burges was appointed to undertake a restoration of the site and a refurbishment of the interior. The restoration was extensive; the removal of pews and galleries from the
  south and west sides, a new ceiling (painted with signs of the zodiac as at Peterborough Cathedral), a new chancel and significant re-building. The designs were exhibited at the Royal Academy. Work  was completed by 1876. In the view of Burges's biographer, J. Mordaunt Crook, "(Burges's interior) meets the Middle Ages as an equal." The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner said that Burges's remodelling was carried out "with all the robust ugliness which that architect liked".  The revised 2007 edition of his book takes a more sympathetic view, describing Burges' work as "pioneering (and) powerful". In the last year of the restoration, a 15th-century doom painting was discovered under whitewash on the east wall of the Lady Chapel. Further, more sensitive, restoration was undertaken in 1964.
  The Abbey's stained glass includes early work by Edward Burne-Jones in the rose window and lancets of the east wall, and Archibald Keightley Nicholson in the Lady Chapel. The Lady Chapel has three windows by Nicholson, depicting the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Work on a fourth – intended to depict the Epiphany – was interrupted by the Second World War and never resumed. In April 1941, a  500 kg German parachute mine
  exploded in a field nearby at Romeland, destroying most of the windows on the north side of the church. In March 1945, a V-2 rocket landed in Highbridge Street, destroying the "Bellringers Window" in the tower; a  detailed hand-tinted photograph of the window, discovered in 2007, may eventually allow the window to be recreated.
caption: Burges's East Wall and Zodiac Ceiling
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