CHURCH OF ST MARY

Overview

Location

Details

RICKMANSWORTH CHURCH STREET TQ 0694 SW (West side) Rickmansworth

13/137 Church of St. Mary 26.7.51 GV II

Parish church. West tower probably c.1630. Aisles remain from 1825-6 rebuilding by W. Atkinson. Nave, chancel, chapel and vestry 1890-1 by Sir A. Blomfield. Early C20 porch. Knapped flint with stone dressings. Stock brick aisles. Slate aisle roofs. Leaded nave and chancel roofs. Gothic Survival tower, Gothick Revival aisles and Decorated Gothic Revival nave, chancel, S vestry and N porch. W tower: 4 stages. 3 stage clasping buttresses with stone quoining. Chamfered pointed arch to double door to W. Cornice to empty panel above. Plinth, string courses between stages. 2nd stage 3 light traceried window dated 1933 with 1630 incised above. 3rd stage 2 light square headed windows with cusped lights, hood moulds. Belfry: 3 light pointed arched openings with uncusped traceried heads, hood moulds. Embattled parapet. Leaded spirelet. 6 bay aisles, stock brick with red brick window surrounds. Stone capped plinth and buttresses. To S: windows to 4 centre bays and on W return 2 lights under ogee arched heads, leaded panes, chamfered reveals, hood moulds. C18 tomb panels beneath 2 windows. Oversailing courses to moulded stone course at eaves. Lean-to roof. To N: similar windows, E end C19 tomb plaque. Nave: 5 bays with 3 light clerestorey windows, 4 centred heads, cusped lights, hollow moulded inner and chamfered outer surrounds. Moulded cornice, embattled parapet. Chancel: large 5 light E window with decorated tracery, pointed arched head. 2 stage diagonal buttresses. S return has tall 2 light window with traceried head. N return has 3 light window with traceried round arched head. Gargoyles at returns. Coped parapet, embattled to N and S. Crocketed and cusped panelled corner finials. To SE is vestry, 1 storey and flat roofed. 4 light window to E, square head with cusped lights, hood mould. Stepback to entrance bay with 4 centred head over door. Coped parapet. On W bay of N aisle is porch. Entrance on E return in pointed arch. 2 traceried lancets to N and 1 on W return. Diagonal buttresses. Embattled parapet. Interior: pointed tower arch with 2 chamfered and an outer hollow order. 5 bay nave arcades with octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals, pointed arches, 2 hollow orders, moulded string course below clerestorey. Shafts between bays act as corbels to timber braces to roof, 4 centred arched braces with traceried panels to brattished tie beams, wind braces. Curved braces to lean-to aisle roofs. Ogee heads to doors from aisle W bays. Chancel arch has hollow moulded orders on short respond columns on angel corbels. Pointed arches from aisles to N chapel and S vestry and from chancel to N chapel. Triple sedilia and piscina in chancel S wall with crocketing and cusped panels. Stiff leaf frieze below windows. Engaged shafts at angles. Octagonal C19 font at W end of nave. Traceried timber screen from nave to tower. Octagonal pulpit and choir seating of 1890. Mosaic strips on chancel E wall. Monuments: chancel N wall chest tomb to H. Cary, Earl of Monmouth, d.1661. Moulded base and renewed marble slab on top. Front has bolection surround to lengthy inscription. Alabaster arms in high relief on short ends. N chapel wall slab to T. Fotherley, late C17, signed by W. Woodman, aedicular Baroque surround, scrolled open pediment, seraphs and foliage with scrolled jambs, swags below bracketed sill. N chapel W wall fragment of inscribed stone to T. Fotherley, d.1624, and wife, d.1584. At W end of S aisle marble slab by Flaxman to Earle family, 1796, an urn surmounts Greek Revival tablet with arms below. W end of N aisle marble slab by J.J. Saunders to H. Fotherley Whitfield, d.1813, draped urn on tablet. C17 floor slabs, further C18 wall slabs. Crucifixion in E window by Burne-Jones, 1896. (VCH 1908: RCHM 1910: Pevsner 1977).

Listing NGR: TQ0613094220

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

158780

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1908)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977)
Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.