Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

St. Andrews Church (Rochford)

St. Andrew’s is the parish church of the delightful old Essex market town of Rochford.

The church is positioned quite separately from the town, in deference to the owners of Rochford Hall, and is now divided from the town by the railway.

St. Andrew’s, built mostly of brick, dates largely from a rebuild in the 15th century. There is a big brick tower, and a totally unexpected pair of half timbered gables.

Its unique feature is that it is the only church to be completely surrounded by a golf course.

In the graveyard is buried Joseph Banyard, who founded the 19th century sect the Peculiar People in Rochford.

In the former church on the site, Henry Bolingbroke married Mary de Bohun. Henry later seized the crown as Henry IV, but Mary had died before this, and is buried at Leicester. She was the mother of Henry V.