Church of All Saints

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

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

356131

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, A, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1912)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977)
Beachcroft, T O, Emms, W B, Five Hide Village, (1984)
Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society in Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society, (1902), 68

Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)

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