Details
DATCHWORTH BURY LANE
TL 21 NE
(Southwest side)
Datchworth
3/26 Church of All Saints
24.11.66
GV II*
Parish church. Late C12 or early C13 origins. Late C13 N aisle added.
Late C14 tower added. Later medieval chancel rebuilding and S porch
added. Altered 1824-5. Restored, tower raised and spire added 1869-70 by
A.W. Blomfield. Further restorations 1886 and 1901 including addition of
vestry and organ bay. Flint rubble, largely cement rendered. Stone
dressings. Tiled roofs. Shingled spire. 4 bay nave and N aisle. Smaller,
narrower 2 bay chancel. W tower, S porch, N vestry. Chancel: E window of
3 cinquefoiled lights, square head in 4 centred arched recess. S
elevation has a C19 plank and muntin priest's door with flanking square
headed 2 light windows of unequal size, 4 centred arched headed lights
in deep embrasures. Plinth and dentilled brick eaves. Taller nave to S
has 2 cinquefoiled light square headed windows flanking porch. Porch is
gabled with sawtooth tiled roof. Outer chamfered 4 centred arch with a
blind slit window in brick coped gable parapet with kneelers. Blind slit
windows in returns. Inner neo-Norman entrance arch with shafted jambs,
double round arch with outer chevron moulding, impost blocks. Relatively
large W tower: early lower stage has moulded stone double plinth. W
entrance blocked with heavily moulded 2 centred arch. Above this a 3
light window with a pointed arched head, late C19 tracery, mask stopped
hood mould. 3 stage diagonal buttresses. String course to upper part of
lower stage with clock to S. Cornice to C19 belfry, exposed flint with
stone quoining and a stone band at impost level of 2 cinquefoiled light
openings with quatrefoils in 2 centred heads. Corbelled cornice to tall
splay-footed spire with hipped and louvred lucarnes, weather-vane. N
aisle is exposed flint and stone, knapped flint to E. Towards E end a 2
cinqueroiled light C15 window, deep embrasure, square hood. Towards W
end a late C19 2 light window with a quatrefoil in a pointed arched
head. Later C19 brick buttresses with gabled heads added to centre and
E. Diagonal 3 stage buttress at W angle. Similar late C19 2 light
windows on gable ends of N aisle. Sprocket eaves. Gabled vestry to N of
chancel has a square 2 light lattice window with a sham timber framed
gable, slate roof. Lean-to organ bay to W. Interior: late C13 4 bay
arcade from nave to N aisle has 3 octagonal piers with moulded bases and
capitals, double hollow chamfered order in 2 centred arches. Responds to
inner order only have detached Purbeck marble shafts with moulded bases
and foliate capitals. Late medieval 2 centred chancel arch, triple
moulded, responds to inner order have shafts with caps, damaged bases.
Tall late C14 3 centred tower arch, triple moulded, semi-octagonal
responds to inner order with caps and bases. N aisle windows have
moulded medieval rear arches. Nave roof: C15 arch braced collar beam
trusses, moulded braces and double purlins, double row of curved
windbraces. Later chancel roof has small moulded arched braces to collar
beams. N aisle reroofed 1886 with timber bracing inserted to support
aisle arcade. On inside of N aisle E wall are 3 small niches and a
bracket. C15 font, octagonal. stem and bowl, trefoiled panelled sides,
embattled edges, broach stops at foot. Large oak chest, probably C17,
with 3 locks. Late C19 Gothic chancel fittings. In nave S wall a recess
with a restored 2 centred arched head with a label inside which is a C14
coffin slab with a raised floriated cross. Chancel N wall, plain marble
epitaph with base and cornice, to W. Hawtayne, d.1747. Similar late C18
epitaph on chancel S wall. Early C19 E window with 3 Old Testament
scenes was removed from Church of St. Andrew and St. Mary, Watton at
Stone C.P. (q.v.). Elsewhere late C19 glass. Outside nave S wall has
affixed to it an epitaph to Rev C.W. Johnson, d.1828, his wife and
Alice Linton, d.1824, W. Hitch, mason, Hertford. The church is on a
large moated site which included the original Bury. (East Herts
Archaeological Society Transactions, 1902, p.68: RCHM 1910: VCH 1912:
Pevsner 1977: T.O. Beachcroft and W.B. Emms, Five Hide Village, 1984).
Listing NGR: TL2677419263
