To the East - The High Street - To the West - Gadebridge Park

Parish Church, Hemel Hempstead Chester Vaughan Series circa 1905     It should be noted that since the above picture was taken the churchyard has been cleared of stones, with a number being stood against the boundary walls.

It should be noted that since the above picture was taken the churchyard has been cleared of stones, with a number being stood against the boundary walls.

The church of St. Mary is a large and ancient cruciform building of clunch stone and flint in the Norman and Early English styles, the earliest portions dating from about 1150 and consists of chancel with north aisles, nave of six bays with clerestory, aisles, transepts, south porch and central tower with plain corbelled parapet and lofty octagonal leaded spire containing a clock and eight bells and chimes playing 8 tunes: the church is a fine specimen of  Norman architecture, of which the arcades of the name and the west door are admirable examples, but the windows in the south wall are Decorated: important structural repairs were made in the church in 1846 at the expense of Henry Newton Heale, esq. of Highfield House in this parish: in 1862-3 it was restored at a cost of £3,600, raised by subscription, under the direction of Mr Ewan Christian, architect, and a new organ was also erected: the transept roofs, which are very fine examples of 14th century work, were opened and restored in 1880, also by Mr. Christian, and the very fine 15th century roof of the nave was restored in 1880 in memory of the Dowager Lady Cooper, who died 16 Sept. 1878, by her children, and in 1888 a new west window was inserted and the 13th century colouring of the roof and walls of the chancel was renewed, under the direction of G. F. Bodley. esq. A.R.A., F.S.A.  at the expense of the Misses Hamilton and Miss Godwin: there are memorial windows to the late G. E. Grover esq. and to the late Henry Day esq.: a fine brass, with figures, to Robert Albyn and Margaret, his wife, 1480, and a monument to the late Sir Astley Paston Cooper bart. d. 12 Feb. 1841: there are 658 sittings, 212 being free. The register of marriages and burials dates from 1558; baptisms, 1566. The living is a vicarage, tithe rent-charge £496, with an additional £110 yearly, arising from house property, with residence, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and held since 1886 by the Rev. John Robbins, D.D. of Christ Church, Oxford.

Kelly's Directory  for Hertfordshire, 1890

Parish Church Hemel Hempstead   Published by George Day, Hemel Hempstead

To the East - The High Street - To the West - Gadebridge Park

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