Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin (Church of England)

Details

TL 22 NE WALKERN CHURCH END (north side)

1/6 Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin 24.11.66 (C of E) (formerly listed as Church of St Mary)

GV I

Parish church. A-S Cll nave, early C12 S aisle, early C13 chancel and N aisle, early C14 W tower, early C15 2-storeys S porch, late C15 aisle windows and a clerestorey. Rainwater heads dated 1789. Chancel restored 1878, NE chapel 1882 by Hugh Roumieu Gough. C19 SE vestry, restoration and re-seating 1882. Flint rubble with dressings of Barnack stone and clunch. Chancel and flanking chapel and vestry steep roofs in old red tile. Flatter- pitched roofs of W parts concealed by crenallated parapets. Pyramid slate roof to tower topped by a tall slender finial. In a hollow by a ford over the River Beane, a small church of nave, N and S aisles, unbuttressed 3-stage W tower, 2-storeys S porch, and chancel flanked by lean-to NE chapel and SE vestry. Tall Saxon nave, proportioned 1:2, with a sculptured Rood in Situ, formerly external over S door, of robed Christ. S wall pierced by 2 plain round arched openings in early C12 with multiple cable moulded impost on E jamb of W archway, possibly re-used from Saxon S door. In S aisle Norman S door with recessed order and colonettes, and blocked Norman window to W. C13 3-bay N arcade of nave into narrower N aisle. Octagonal columns with moulded caps and bases support 2-centred arches of 2 chamfered orders. Late C14 N doorway of 2 moulded orders. 4 carved heads as roof corbels. Late C15 windows, 3 3-light in N wall and a 2-light window in W wall. S aisle has a 4-light C15 S window, 3-light similar window at W, lower door and winding rood stair at NE, small C15 door to W of S door leading by winding stair to parvise over porch, late C14 clunch octagonal font with shafts worked on alternate facets of bowl, and in an arched wall recess in S wall the fine Purbeck marble effigy of a knight with crossed legs, mail hauberk, coif, chausses, long surcoat, shield, sword and closed flat-topped helm (said to be William de Lanvalei d. 1211, or his son of same name d,121?). Tall double chamfered arch into tower, with recessed reticulated tracery in 3-light W window. Late C15 bell-chamber openings above. Low pitched medieval roofs over nave and aisles contemporary, each of 3 bays with moulded principals, sub-principals, purlins and ridge, with carved bosses at intersections and provision for angel figures to be fixed with wings displayed on the lower part of each sub- principal. Deep cambered tie beams and arched knee-braces from wall posts in nave and N aisle. Wide C13 chancel arch of 2 chamfered orders has a C15 oak screen, panelled below and with 2 open traceried bays each side of central opening. Chancel has a trefoil headed early C13 piscina with dog-tooth ornament and shafted jambs, triple C13 stepped sedillia, C19 triple lancet E window with shafted rerearch, 2-bay C19 N arcade in elementary plate-tracery into NE chapel, and stepped sanctuary with patterning of encaustic and glazed coloured tiling in floor. Slim C16 octagonal oak pulpit. Royal arms over tower arch. Consecration crosses on E jamb of W arch of S arcade, and in knapped flint externally on each face of base of tower. Brasses: to Edward Humberston and wife 1583 in front of tower arch (palimpsest of John Lovekyn 1368); to C15 man and wife, and inscription to William Bramfielde 1596 both in floor of N aisle; to Edward Chapman 1621 and wife 1636 on S wall of chancel; 3 inscriptions in vestry. Wall monuments: to Gyles Humberston 1627, on S wall of nave, an aedicule with Corinthian pilasters, broken pediment, mantled achievement and man and wife kneeling facing over prayer desk; to David Gorsuch 1638 and wife, on S wall of chancel, a similar aedicule of 2 arches with kneeling figures; to Philip Adams 1803, on N wall of N aisle, a tablet surmounted by a draped urn, referring to tomb in churchyard (q.v.). A church of outstanding interest on account of its early origins, varied dates of development, the Saxon Road sculpture and the early C13 knight's effigy in the S aisle. (RCHM (1911) 224-5: VCH (1912) 155-7: Kelly (1914) 254: Pevsner (1977) 372-3).

Listing NGR: TL2928626565

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

159652

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, A, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1912), 155-7
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 372-3
Kellys Directory in Hertfordshire, (1914), 254

Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)

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