About our church

 

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The following extracts are taken from 'A Brief Guide to the Church of Saint Lawrence, Rowhedge' researched by Mr Roy Tricker, Lay Canon of St Edmundsbury Cathedral:

 

"Welcome to this fascinating and eccentric building which crowns the Rowhedge skyline and which has been the Spiritual Home for people in this riverside community for over a century and a half. There is no other church in Essex (and few in England) that is quite like it and although it is modern in comparison to our mediaeval churches, there is much of beauty and interest to be enjoyed here. Above all, it is a living, working building, in regular use for the purpose for which it was built and as a Holy Place, is cherished and cared for."
 
"In 1816, the Reverend Vicessimus McGie Torriano arrived as curate in charge of East Donyland (probably for an absentee Rector). By then the community at the Rowhedge end of his parish had grown and the population of some 700 were engaged in dredging the River Colne for oysters or working on the land. The old parish church stood aloof from where most of the people lived, also it was too small for the growing population and to extend it was considered to be impossible. It could accommodate 255 people, including 65 seats for Sunday School children, In 1837, therefore, the Revd Torriano, who had become Rector of the Parish in 1835, set about raising money to build a new church in Rowhedge. After the consecration of the new building in 1838, the old church was demolished."
 
"The architect chosen to design the new church was WILLIAM MASON (1810-97) of Ipswich (son of George Mason, Builder, Surveyor and Architect, who became Borough Surveyor for Ipswich and designed rectories at Chelmondiston and Shottisham)."
 
"Mr Mason was commissioned to design a church that must be low in price, but hold 500 people, who must be seated so that they could see and hear the preacher easily. He came up with an ingenious scheme, which would cater for all these requirements. He designed an octagonal building."