St. Erkenwald's Church, Southend-on-Sea was one of Sir Walter
Tapper's earlier designs. I thought a saint with such a wonderful name deserved a cache and it was certainly an imposing building- even without its tower, which was never built! Does anyone remember it? They have built modern flats on the site(with turrets!), but there is still a very nice Victorian vicarage to be seen.
The church was built between 1905 and 1910. Compared to the vast
majority of churches, St Erkenwald's had rather a short and sorry
life. It was never completed to Tapper's original plans, and,
following a period without an incumbent in the late 1950s/early
1960s, the church's usage fell into steady decline.
IT WAS DEMOLISHED IN 1995
Erkenwald was born at Lindsey, Lincolnshire and was supposedly
of royal ancestry. He gave up his share of family money to help
establish two abbeys. In 675, Erkenwald became the bishop of
London. He is said to have brought a corpse to life by breathing on
it.
http://www.sir-walter-tapper-churches.co.uk/ForgottenCathedral.asp
Erkenwald died in 693 and his remains were buried at Old St
Paul's Cathedral.
This is now a Nano
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication
To view the church micro stats page, please click here