Church of St Mary

CHURCH OF ST MARY, CHURCH LANE

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
I
List Entry Number:
1102559
Date first listed:
27-May-1968
List Entry Name:
Church of St Mary
Statutory Address:
CHURCH OF ST MARY, CHURCH LANE
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Date:
2000-07-13
Reference:
IOE01/02809/25
Rights:
© Mr L.W. Smith. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
I
List Entry Number:
1102559
Date first listed:
27-May-1968
List Entry Name:
Church of St Mary
Statutory Address 1:
CHURCH OF ST MARY, CHURCH LANE

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
CHURCH OF ST MARY, CHURCH LANE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Hertfordshire
District:
North Hertfordshire (District Authority)
Parish:
Reed
National Grid Reference:
TL 36132 35748

Details

REED CHURCH LANE TL 33 NE (East side) Reed 3/143 Church of St. Mary 27.5.68 - I

Parish church. Early C11. Chancel rebuilt mid C14. Tower of C13 or C14 raised with other alterations in C15. Restored with S porch added 1863-4 by Slater. Coursed flint rubble with Barnack stone and clunch dressings. Red brick repair. Some cement rendering. Tiled roofs. Small rectangular nave with narrower, shorter and lower chancel, W tower, S porch. Nave has original long and short quoins flush with walling at all 4 angles, splayed at base but not continued as a base-course except from W angles where a second higher splay also continues as a plinth onto tower. To N on nave a blocked doorway of C11 or early C12: crudely executed round arched surround, broadly roll moulded outer face to inner archivolt, clunch tympanum, continuous splayed abaci, inner shafted jambs with incised voluted capitals, square cut outer order. Flanking restored C15 2 light windows, rectilinear tracery in square heads with hollow moulded surrounds. C19 stone course projects to close eaves. Nave to S has 2 C19 windows copying those to N, C19 S porch has a pointed arch with shafted jambs, 2 stage diagonal buttresses, coped gable parapet, 2 light windows with square heads in returns. Inner entrance is a C14 pointed arch, double wave moulded, hood mould with foliate stops, to right a semi-octagonal stoup, an early plank door with iron strap hinges and lock plate. Chancel: cement rendered E end with a restored 5 light pointed arched window with reticulated tracery. 2 stage diagonal buttresses. Chancel N and S C14 2 light windows towards nave with foiled and cusped pointed heads, restored to N and remade to S in C19. Brick courses to sprocket eaves. Ridge crosses on E gables of chancel and nave. Gable end parapet on nave to W. Tower of 3 stages is unbuttressed and quoined. Raised plinth, string courses separate stages. To W are traces of a blocked doorway with a pointed arched head, above in lower stage is a restored 2 light window as in chancel N and S walls. Louvred lancets in second stage to S and to all sides in belfry, chamfered brick and stone surrounds. Parapet is embattled to all sides but E with much red brick repair. Weathervane finial. Interior: C15 pointed tower arch, 2 chamfered orders dying into jambs. C19 chancel arch of 2 wave moulded orders, shafted responds. C19 roofs: 4 bays in nave with arched braces from short colonnettes on corbels, chancel has a ceiled 7 sided vault. At NE angle of nave are steps formerly to rood loft. In N jamb of tower arch a C14 recess with an outer ogee arch. Font has a C15 octagonal bowl with carved rosettes and shields on splayed lower faces, C20 square panelled stem. Early C17 communion table with bulbous turned legs. On SW wall of nave a lead memorial with a low relief allegorical figure, to T. Cherry, Church Warden, and W. Mowbray, Plumber, 1807. (East Herts Archaeological Society Transactions, vol.2, part 3, 1904, p.261: RCHM 1910: VCH 1914: H.M. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 1965: Pevsner 1977).

Listing NGR: TL3613235748

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
162600
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1914)
Taylor, H M, J, , Anglo Saxon Architecture, (1965)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977)
Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society in Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society, Vol. 2, (1904), 261

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.

Ordnance survey map of Church of St Mary

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 23-Jun-2026 at 04:19:34.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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