Church of the Immaculate Conception and St Joseph

Details

HERTFORD

TL3212NE ST JOHN'S STREET
817-1/17/231 (West side)
Church of the Immaculate Conception
and St Joseph

GV II

Roman Catholic church. 1859-1861. Architect Henry Clutton
(1819-93).
MATERIALS: flint with yellow brick bands and quoins, and stone
dressings, north wall yellow brick, Flemish bond, clay tiled
roof with polygonal hipped east end. Fleche with tile-hung
square base, set diagonally, with lead roll lattice-patterned
covering to spire, above bell-cote with 4 arched openings and
corner pinnacles.
STYLE: C13 Gothic style with French influence.
PLAN: hall plan with 4 bay nave, short polygonal sanctuary,
north aisle, with lean-to entry porch at west end, with south
door.
EXTERIOR: principal (south) elevation has door at left beneath
pointed arch with dripmould supported on colonnettes. 4 widely
spaced simple lancet windows in plain chamfered reveals with
stone quoins, with yellow brick band above heads, and
mid-height, projecting stone coping with cavetto moulding,
brick band and mid-height brick band on plinth. Projecting
buttress marks the division between nave and sanctuary, and
has stone quoins, offsets and cap supported on small foliated
brackets. Polygonal sanctuary has 1 lancet window in each
face.
North aisle roofed separately has flint faced east gable with
yellow brick bands and stone-coped parapet, and rose window
with traceried inner circle and five outer segments; north
elevation brick with 3 lancet windows with stone impost blocks
and rubbed brick heads.
West end has twin stone-coped gables, with lancet windows with
circles above.
INTERIOR: 4-bay nave with shallow west gallery divided from
aisles by octagonal chamfered columns with leaf and ball
volutes, square abacus with cavetto moulding and arcade with
square cut intrados. Open rafter roof with struts and braces.
Sanctuary arch chamfered and raised on chamfered corbelled
colonnettes with carved foliated volute caps. Sanctuary floor
raised 4 steps above nave has deep set lancet windows above
sill band, moulded cornice and roof with moulded and gilded
ribs, with original decorative scheme of gold stars on a blue
ground restored 1995.


Around walls was a series of late C19 wall paintings between
windows with figures of apostles and saints arcaded in
surrounds, revealed in a damaged state and covered over after
recording, 1994-5, with the intention of repainting replicas.
Late C19 stained glass by Ion Pace of Clayton and Bell in
lancet windows. Red veined marble altar, with colonnettes, and
plain reredos, reconstructed from panels of elaborate high
altar and reredos dismantled early 1970s.
Stone pulpit, in memoriam Jacob Montague Mason, 1892, raised
on 6 shafts with bell caps and roll bases, frontal with
attached colonnettes of pink marble, trefoil-headed niches
with carved figures, foliated cornice and moulded toprail.
Font with 8 sandstone colonnettes, and octagonal basin with
incised quatrefoils.
North chapel has elaborate curved stone altar and reredos in
memory of Agnes Bancroft (d.January 20 1897). Frontal panel
with a carved Annunciation, with red veined marble colonnettes
at each side; arcaded traceried reredos with canopies with
pinnacles and poppy heads, breaking forward in centre and
raised on colonnettes over a statue of the Virgin and Child.
Side altar in memory of Patrick and Mary Roland, with carved
Pieta frontal panel and traceried canopied reredos with figure
of St Joseph. Rose window above east end with stained glass
showing the Virgin Mary and Angels.
West aisle window with figures of Saint Hugh of Lincoln and St
Patrick, with a roundel of St Gertrude above, north aisle 3
lancets with figures of St John the Baptist, the Sacred Heart
and St Thomas of Canterbury, all richly painted figures with
pinnacle surrounds by Nathaniel Westlake, installed c1898-9.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the architect of the church, Henry Clutton
had been a partner of William Burges (with whom he won the
Lille Cathedral Competition in 1853). Converted to Roman
Catholicism in 1856, his ecclesiastical buildings also
included St Francis of Assisi, Notting Hill, St Mary, Woburn
and St Michael, Apsley Heath. The site for St Joseph's Church
lies to the south of the historic site of St Mary's Priory,
founded by Ralph de Limesi, a knight of William I, and
dissolved 1536.
(Page FM: History of Hertford: Hertford: 1993-: 21,27,
53-4,106; Dixon R and Muthesius S: Victorian Architecture:
London: 1978-: 256; Hertfordshire Countryside: Heath C:
Hertford remembers a forgotten epoch: 1973-: 40-1).


Listing NGR: TL3283912920

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

461509

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, F M, History of Hertford, (1993), 21 27
Page, F M, History of Hertford, (1993), 53-54 106
Dixon, R, Muthesius, S, Victorian Architecture, (1978), 256
Hertfordshire Countryside in Hertfordshire Countryside, (1973), 40-41

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.