Chipping Barnet No. 2 / Chaeping Barnet / Chepyng Barnet / High Barnet / La Barnette / La Bernete Abbis

No entry for Chipping Barnet found in the Domesday survey. The Victoria County History (Hertfordshire, vol. 2, 1908) notes: "The church of Chipping Barnet belonged to the abbey of St. Albans before the Dissolution. It was apparently a chapel belonging to East Barnet. […] The building assumed its present form in 1875, having been before that date of much smaller dimensions. […] As a result of these transformations, due to Mr. Butterfield, the architectural history of the church cannot be carried back very far. A plan is fortunately preserved in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of London, which shows that its dimensions were, chancel 16 ft. by 19 ft. wide, nave about 60 ft. long and 19 ft. wide at the east, narrowing regularly to 16 ft. at the west. The width between the aisle walls was, however, at west as at east, 49 ft. 3 in., so that the aisles were wider at the west than at the east. Remains of fourteenth-century work are said to have existed in the north wall of the north aisle, and it is clear that the aisle walls were the earliest existing parts of the building. […] The font at the west end of the nave is modern, with a tall oak cover, superseding a plain octagonal font. The ancient font, probably made in 1452, […] is now in the mission church of St. Stephen, having been found a few years ago in a garden, much mutilated." [cf. Index entry for Chipping Barnet No. 1 for the 15th-century font originally from this church]. Tompkins (1922) mentions a "beautifully carved font screen, pinnacled and crocketted". The font is noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1977) as a baptismal font "by Butterfield" [NB: William Butterfield (1814-1900), pioneer of High Victorian Gothic revival architecture]. The medieval church was rebuilt in the 15th century, and later enlarged in the 1870s under the direction of Butterfield -- cf. Chipping Barnet No. 1 for the old font now in a new church]