PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN (CHURCH OF ENGLAND)

Overview

Location

Details

Aston village TL 2722 ASTON BROADWATER LANE (north side)

12/3 Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin (C of E)

24.11.66

GV II*

Parish church. Nave and chancel c1230, W tower late C14 or early C15, low pitched timber roofs and new windows late C15, restoration and N aisle 1850; general restoration, N vestry and S porch rebuilt 1883 by W O Milne of London. Alabaster reredos with mosaic panels also by Milne 1896. Flint rubble with rough plastered finish and corbelled brick crenellated parapet to tower with stone dressings and tiled buttress offsets. Knapped flint uncoursed facing to rest of church with stone dressings and flushwork chequer of stone and flint on porch. Copper low pitched roof to chancel - similar behind nave's crenellated parapet. Lead roof and spike with vane on tower. Slate roof to NE vestry. A picturesque irregular church with 2-bay low chancel, taller 3-bay nave with 3-bay arcade and N aisle, square 2-stage tower with large diagonal buttresses each with 5 tiled offsets, gabled S porch and gabled NE vestry with chimney and organ chamber. Spacious interior. Chancel has 2-bay arched- braced oak roof with ridge and one purlin to each slope which have a boss at their junction with a secondary principal at mid- bay. Rear-arch and jamb stones of lancet window recorded in N wall. Double trefoil-headed C13 piscina near alter on S. 2 C16 windows in S wall flanking a blocked small C19 pointed doorway visible outside. Carved and panelled oak choirstalls c1886 from St Mary's Lambeth installed 1973. C19 E window. C16 chancel arch with half-octagonal section and fluted mouldings and capitals. Oak screen c1520 with side panels and central opening. Blind tracery panels fixed to lower part. Nave has a 3-bay roof with cranked tie-beams, 4-centred arched braces springing from moulded wall-posts on carved stone head-corbels. Carved bosses at junctions of ridge and purlins with secondary principals. Octagonal oak pulpit later Cl7 with mitred planted mouldings and arabesque frieze around top. Correct C13 style tall N arcade with pointed arches of 2 chamfered orders, and circular pillars with moulded caps. ¾ pillars as imposts. Good figure brass in central aisle before chancel arch, 1592 to John Kent and wife. 2 S windows C19 of 2-lights with tracery in heads. 3 2-light windows to N aisle and 2-light windows at E and W. Tall 4- centred arch into tower with caps to jamb shafts. 3-light W window has tracery renewed. Pointed W doorway has continuous deeply moulded jambs without caps, intersected by plinth moulding on exterior of tower. Pointed louvred bell openings with clock face below. Bells recast after fire in 1958. Stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, E window (1896), chancel SW (1883) N aisle E (1897). (RCHM (1911) 41-2: VCH (1912) 57-8: Kelly (1914) 26: Pevsner (1977) 78: Eileen Watson The Church of St Mary Aston 1981).

Listing NGR: TL2716722614

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

159564

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, A, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1912), 57-8
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 78
Watson, E, The Church of St Mary Aston Hertfordshire, (1981)
'Kellys Directory' in Hertfordshire, (1914), 26
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.