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Saturday 14 February 2015

Totteridge

St Andrew is essentially a Victorian/Edwardian refurbished Georgian church and is, despite a collection of somewhat dire glass, rather pleasing. An austere interior is alleviated somewhat by its location - Totteridge is a very upmarket north London burb - and the whole is probably greater than its parts.

ST ANDREW, 1790. Aisleless nave of brick with arched window in Gibbs surrounds and heavy W pediment. Pretty weatherboarded bell-turret of 1706. W porch 1845. Chancel and window tracery 1869. - PAINTINGS. Virgin and Saints, demi-figures, by Lorenzo Lozzo; an early work, presented by Lord Rothermere. St John on Patmos and the Woman of the Apocalypse, both sketches, by Benjamin West, uncommonly dramatic, almost in a Tinteretto way. - PULPIT. Jacobean, from Hatfield church. - STAINED GLASS. Chancel by Clayton & Bell, nave S and N, one window each, by Kempe, 1896 and 1903. - PLATE. Cup, inscribed 1614. - PROCESSIONAL cross. Italian, late C13. - MONUMENTS. John Puget d. 1805, by John Bacon, jnr, epitaph with urn. - Second World War Memorial, by T.J. Rushton.

St Andrew (2)

S chapel Crucifix

NN1 Clayton & Bell 3 Maries at the sepulchre (9)

Totteridge. If we return to Chipping Barnet and make our way towards London, the road follows for some distance the course of the Dollis Brook. On either side of the stream the fields, in which there are plenty of wild flowers, are preserved as an open space. At Whetstone, Totteridge Lane runs away to the west and along it are many fine houses, several of them such as Garden Hill and Southernhay dating from the 18th century when Totteridge provided a pretty country retreat for well-to-do men who still needed to be within easy reach of London. The largest house of all, Copped Hall, where Lord Lytton lived and Cardinal Manning was born, has, however, been demolished.

The parish church, dedicated to St Andrew, stands at a sharp bend in the road - a bend caused by the boundary of the mediaeval manor house which stood very much where Southernhay stands today. The church which existed in the 16th century, was rebuilt in 1790 and is of plain brick with a weatherboarded bell-turret of 1706 which was retained from the old church. Inside, there is a simple aisleless nave; the apse has an unusual and attractive domed wooden-ribbed roof. The pulpit is a 17th-century one from Hatfield. The church possesses four paintings, two by Benjamin West, the American who became President of the Royal Academy - they are St John on Patmos and The Woman of the Apocalypse - another by the parson-painter, the Reverend Matthew Peters, R.A., and a lovely group of the Madonna and Child with Peter and Paul by Lorenzo Lotto. This was given by Lord Rothermere in 1925 in memory of his mother, Mary Geraldine Harmsworth, who often worshipped at Totteridge though she is buried in St Marylebone Cemetery, Finchley, beside another of her sons, Lord Northcliffe. In the churchyard, where a 19th century Lord Chancellor, the 1st earl of Cottenham, and Sir Lucas Pepys, physician to the unfortunate George III, lie buried, are great elm trees that flank the road, and a huge yew tree, 27 feet in girth. Just beyond the church, the pound for strayed animals is still standing.

The most famous person associated with Totteridge is Henry Edward Manning who was born there in 1808, the son of a West India merchant who was also a governor of the Bank of England. Educated at Harrow and Balliol, he entered the ministry of the Church of England and became first Rector of Woollavington in Sussex, where his wife died, and then Archdeacon of Chichester. Manning’s heart gradually turned from the Church of England and he became a Roman Catholic. His promotion in that Church was rapid. After three years study in Rome, in intimate contact with the Pope, he returned to high office in London. On the death of Cardinal Wiseman he was made Archbishop of Westminster and 10 years later a Cardinal.

He was a man of severely ascetic temperament with rigid theological views, yet he had a passionate sympathy with the poor and oppressed. He campaigned against drink and sat on the Royal Commissions for the housing of the poor and for education. He was a great preacher and a good writer and died in 1892 at the age of 73.

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