Details
HUNTINGDON
898/6/1 CHURCH LANE
10-JAN-51 HARTFORD
CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS
II*
DATES OF MAIN PHASES/ NAMES OF ARCHITECTS:
Probably early C12 in origin, N and S aisles added in the late C12. Late C15 W tower. Chancel E wall, chancel arch and western parts of N and S nave walls rebuilt in 1861-3 to designs by Robert Hutchinson. Further restoration in 1885. Large N extension of 2004 to designs by Graham Campbell.
MATERIALS:
Uncoursed random stone rubble, with cut stone dressings. Tiled roofs.
PLAN:
Chancel with N organ chamber, nave with N and S aisles, S porch, W tower.
EXTERIOR:
A small church with a tall tower in an extremely picturesque setting on the bank of the Ouse. No clerestory or parapet, except on the tower. Chancel E wall rebuilt in the C19 and has 3-light cusped Y-tracery E window with a small trefoil opening above it; there is a square-headed C19 door and two large, C19 Early English style lancets with hood moulds with foliage head stops in the chancel S wall. The N side of the chancel is largely covered by the C19, Early English style vestry. The N side is dominated by a large and sympathetic extension of 2004, the gables of which mass attractively with the rest of the church. Three-light C15 window in the N aisle wall to the E of the extension and another to the W of it. The N aisle has no west window. The S aisle has no E window, possibly an original arrangement. Two three-light C15 S windows, heavily restored, and a C19 Early English style window like those in the chancel to the W of the porch. Small C19 lancet in the S aisle W wall. S porch of 1861-3 in an Early English style, the outer arch with dog tooth and short, corbelled shafts with stiff leaf capitals. The S door is c1190 and has detached shafts on the jambs. Four-stage, C15 W tower with a small, half-round stair turret. Embattled parapet with corner pinnacles and unusual foiled ogee arches joining the central two crenels on each side. The late C15 W door is blocked and has a four-centred head. Heavily restored 3-light C15 W window and 2-light windows in the bell stage. A number of medieval, moulded stones are incorporated into the E wall and aisle walls.
INTERIOR
Internally there is much neo-Norman work at the E end, but the nave arcades are genuine C12 work. Fine neo-Norman chancel arch of 1861-3, heavily carved on both sides with chevron, bobbin, chip carving and other motifs. Flat soffit flanked on both faces by nook shafts with scallop capitals. The chancel is dominated by the very heavily carved late Norman style decoration on the E wall. The outer section has two bay intersecting blind arcades on detached, dark marble, shafts, the inner section is a reredos with a carved inscription. The whole is lavishly decorated with chevron, billet, diaper work and foliage carving. The splays and rere-arch of the E window are probably C14.
Four bay N and S arcades with round columns, each with moulded capitals and bases, but the arches indicate that the S arcade is slightly later. The N arcade is probably c1180 and round arches of two orders, the outer square, the inner chamfered; the S arcade is c1190 and has pointed arches of two chamfered orders. The western bays on both sides were largely rebuilt in the C19. A two light C15 window with cusped lights opens from the N aisle into the organ chamber. Late C15 tower arch of three chamfered orders, the outer two continuous, the inner on polygonal shafts with moulded capitals, closed by a C20 timber and glazed screen.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES
Square, C13 font with a central shaft and four, renewed outer shafts. Early English-style pulpit of 1861-3 with fat marble shafts with stiff leaf capitals and dogtooth in the stem and detached marble shafts around the main section. Good neo-Norman dado and reredos of 1861-3 in the chancel. C19 geometric floor tiles in the chancel and encaustic tiles in the nave. C19 nave benches with stylised poppyheads and traceried fronts. Some C18 and C19 wall tablets. C19 chancel roof with the braces of the trusses forming trefoils, and C19 scissor-braced roof in the nave. Some interesting C19 glass, including a memorial window to Francis Trevelyan Egerton, son of the vicar, who died in 1885, aged 10, depicted as a choir boy.
HISTORY
There was a church in Hartford at the time of Domesday Book in 1086, but the approximately double-square plan of the nave of the present church (allowing for a setting out error in the S wall) suggests that the present church was built in the early C12. The aisles were added in the late C12, and the chancel may have been lengthened in the C14 as the inner splays of the E window are of that date. The W tower was added in the late C15. In 1861-3 the church was partially rebuilt to designs by Robert Hutchinson (1828-94), a local architect who worked on a number of churches in the area, including Llittle Stukeley. He entirely rebuilt the chancel arch in a bold neo-Norman style, rebuilt the E wall, added the neo-Norman dado, and carried out other repairs to the wall and windows. The RCHM plan suggests that he almost wholly rebuilt the church externally, but the plans submitted for the works (ICBS file) suggests that much original fabric was retained. There were further repairs in 1895, and in 2004 a large N parish room extension was added.
SOURCES
RCHME Huntingdonshire (1926), 128-9
VCH Huntingdon 2 (1932), 171-5
Pevsner, N., Buildings of England, Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough (1968), 259
Lambeth Palace Library, Incorporated Church Building Society papers, file 05823
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The church of All Saints, Hartford, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Medieval parish church of the C12, with late C12 aisle, a possibly C14 chancel and C15 W tower.
* Fittings of interest include C13 font and some interesting glass.
* Partly rebuilt in lavish neo-Norman style in 1861-3, including the chancel arch, chancel E wall, porch and W parts of the aisles.
