History of Our Church

At first sight the flint-dashed exterior hints at pre-Reformation  times. It was, however, built during the last years of Queen Victoria’s  reign.  

The present church is not the first to stand on  this spot. In 1834 the Vicar of Harlow, whose parish boundaries included  the village of Potter Street and the Hamlet of Foster Street, felt the  need for a daughter church to serve the people of Potter Street. The present site on the edge of Harlow Common was purchased, and the first church was built as a Chapel-of-ease.  Assistant clergy from the parish  church were appointed as Chaplains, and the villagers no longer had to  walk the two miles to St Mary’s in Churchgate Street.

Old photographs show the first building as having little to commend  it architecturally. It was a square, cement rendered box, with its  shallow roof practically hidden by mock battlements. 

By 1877, when the Reverend Henry Elwell was appointed vicar, the then village of Potter Street had grown to a size that warranted the extension of the church. Accordingly in 1888 the east wall was taken down and the present Chancel added. The east window of the original church has been preserved and can be seen on the south side of the choir. 

Five years later, in 1893, permission was granted to pull down the old church, and the new Nave was built to match the Chancel.

The tower with its wooden-shingled spire was added to complete the  church as it now stands. 

Hanging in the tower is a fine  set of eight bells from the foundry of John Taylor of Loughborough. The  treble weighs a few ounces over three hundredweight, and the tenor, the  largest of the peal, just over twelve hundredweight. The first full peal  was rung in November 1905, the year the bells were hung. The actual  ringing is unique in that, in order to give sufficient length of rope in  a small tower, the ringers actually stand in the main porch.