CHURCH OF ST GEORGE (CHURCH OF ENGLAND)

Overview

Location

Details

TL 4032 ANSTEY ANSTEY (North side)

7/3 Church of St. George 22.2.67 (C of E)

GV I

Parish church. Late C12 central tower chancel and transepts rebuilt in late C13, C14 nave and aisles with 4-bay arcades, C15 top stage to tower, late C15 S porch. Roofs lowered in 1831 and brickwork repairs to parapets but no structural alterations. Carefully restored 1871-2 by William Butterfield (1814-1900) who removed W gallery, rebuilt S end of S transept and refitted the church. Repairs by Sir Arthur Blomfield 1907. Flint rubble with stone dressings. Metal roofs of low pitch behind parapets. A fine cruciform church with chancel, 4-bays clerestoreyed nave, N and S aisles, transepts, south porch and central tower with battlements and spike. Unusual semi-circular lower stages to C13 diagonal buttresses to chancel and transepts and large semi-circular stair projection at SW corner of S transept formerly serving an upper floor here. Corbels and blocked door for former lean-to C14 vestry in NE angle. Chancel has a display of late C13 details with 3 windows on each side of 2-lights with pointed trefoil heads and quatrefoil over. Cills higher on N. At E 2 black lancets flank C19 window, N doorway with unusual label stops, piscina and sedilia in lower part of window and adjoining niche. Moulded string course links the windows and they have jamb shafts and labels. 2 ranges of early C14 wooden stalls with carved misericords. Central tower of 3 stages with embattled parapet and Herts spike. 4 wide C12 round arches form the lowest stage, plain on N and S but W side of E and W arches have ringed roll mouldings (dated by Pevsner c.1200) and jamb shafts with primitive volute capitals C15 moulded timber ceiling. The 2nd stage has small pointed doorways on N and S to former chambers over transepts. 2-light C15 traceried bell openings. Marks of steeper old roofs around tower. N transept 3-light C15 N window over remains of an original door. Late C13 3-light W window with altered rear arch. C15 moulded arch into N aisle. Indent for a brass of a large-cross and margin inscription. Screen incorporating remains of C15 screen. Small piscina at SE. S transept has restored triple lancet windows on E and S, a 1872 double lancet above the S window, and a single C13 lancet on W with deep splays. C15 arched opening to S aisle and at SW a circular turret lighted by a cross-loop. In S wall a fine canopied tomb recess c.1300 with pinnacles, black trefoil tracery, a wimpled head and the recumbent effigy in a long robe. Transept largely occupied by organ but also large iron bound medieval chest. Nave of 4 bays with quatrefoil piers, moulded capitals and moulded 2-centred arches. Quatrefoil C15 clerestorey windows with rere arches, 3 to each side. W window C14 with C15 tracery and wide C14 door with moulded head and jambs. Vigorous C12 font with rounded square bowl ornamented with large carved figures around each corner apparently of mermen holding their bifurcated tails to each side. N aisle has C15 moulded timber roof, 2 2-light Perp N windows, one at W and blocked N door. Mural monument to Ralph Jermin d.1644. S aisle has 2 Perp windows to S and one at W. C15 S doorway together with S Porch with 2-light windows to E and W and walls with blind cusped panelling. 4-centred entrance, moulded with shafts. (RCHM (1911)33-5: VCH(1914)15-16: Kelly (1914)23: Pevsner (1977)70-72).

Listing NGR: TL4042832890

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

160226

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1914), 15-16
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 70-72
'Kellys Directory' in Hertfordshire, (1914), 23
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.