Three Parishes Working Together
This page highlights the growing collaboration among three Church of England parishes in the Upper Lea Valley, in the north-east corner of Enfield—which happens to be also the north-east corner of Middlesex, Greater London and the Diocese of London. All three parishes have a similar demographic, both in socioeconomic profile and in ethnic diversity.
Our two neighbouring parishes, to the immediate north, lie just inside the M25.
St George’s Freezywater
The Parish of St George comprises the localities of Freezywater (named for an 18th-century farm, evidently describing a dismal-looking pond on that site), Enfield Wash (first recorded in 1675, denoting an area prone to flooding from Turkey Brook), and Bullsmoor. The parish has a population of 12,946, and was founded initially as a mission district of St James’s; there was been a worshipping community there since 1896, meeting first in an ‘iron church’; the present church building was finished in 1906. There is a small church primary school to the rear of the church (Freezywater St George’s), and a very busy parish hall/community centre. The parish is led spiritually by is vicar, the Revd Taemin Oh, since 2014, who also serves as the Dean of Cultural Diversity for the Edmonton Episcopal Area and as Commissary to the Bishop of Daejeon in the Anglican Church of Korea.
St Peter and St Paul Enfield Lock
The Parish of St Peter and St Paul comprises the localities of Enfield Lock (named for a lock on the Lee Navigation) and the Enfield Island Village (an island surrounded by the Lee Navigation, and the river Lea, historically the border between Middlesex and Essex), which was once the site of the Royal Small Arms Factory, and came to the parish in 1995 when the area was redeveloped into housing and annexed into Enfield from Essex. Part of the Diocese of London, the Archdeaconry of Hampstead and the Deanery of Enfield, the parish is under the episcopal care of the suffragan Bishop of Fulham. The parish has a population of 11,179. The church building, built in 1969, is the third on that site, and has a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham (known as ‘England’s Jerusalem’), a shrine in rural Norfolk, and a place of pilgrimage since the 11th century. There is also a parish hall. The parish is led spiritually by the Revd Canon Stephen Gallagher, who was licensed in 2016, and also serves as the Area Dean of Enfield.