Shenleybury

St Botolph, redundant & now a private house, was rebuilt following a fire in 1753 and is not terribly interesting.

ST BOTOLPH, 1 m. N of the village. The fragment of a larger building for which Maud, Countess of Salisbury, left money in 1424. Chancel and tower arch were pulled down in 1753. The wide nave was originally nave and S aisle. The outer walls are of squared flint with brick dressings. The windows have steep two-centred arches and elementary Perp tracery. - BENCHES. Some with poppyheads. - GALLERY. Remains of a Georgian gallery with Tuscan columns. - STAINED GLASS. Window in N wall, 1907, probably from Morris & Co. - PLATE. Chalice and Paten, 1798, Flagon, 1774. - MONUMENTS. Sir Jeremiah Snow d. 1704, standing wall monument with two putti and an urn at the top. - In the churchyard plain tomb of Nicholas Hawksmoor, the great architect, who lived at Porters Park and died there in 1736.

Shenley. Christopher Wren’s friend Nicholas Hawksmoor, when he lay dying by the Thames in London (where he had put his handiwork in the dome of St Paul’s and on the towers of Westminster Abbey), thought of this Hertfordshire hilltop village and asked that he might be buried here. He lies under one of the churchyard yews, having ended a long life of work in 1736. He was with Wren as his assistant all the time on St Paul’s, and finished the western towers of the Abbey which Wren had designed but could not finish. He was a prime mover in the building of 50 Queen Anne churches in London, helped Sir John Vanbrugh with Blenheim, built colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and restored Beverley Minster. He was a modest man with an infinite grasp of detail, and had a great influence on the architecture of his time. His 200th anniversary was marked by an act of homage from the Royal Institute of British Architects, who were represented at the laying of a wreath on his tomb by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s.

The church where they laid him lost the tower and chancel soon after his burial here, and they have never been rebuilt. Only the nave and the aisle are left, and a homeless bell hangs from a low beam out in the open, where anyone may reach up to it, the other bells having been hung in the timber framework by the chapel in the centre of the village. A sundial tilted on the wall warns us that Time Flies, and a board tells of one whom Time carried off long since:

A parish clerk of voice most clear;
None Joseph Rogers could excel
In laying bricks or singing well.
Though snapped his line, laid by his rod,
We build for him our hopes in God.

By the pond on the green is a small round hut under a bee-hive roof, its windows barred with stones inscribed, “Do well and fear not; Be sober and vigilant,” timely warnings to the villagers of old that they would be behind these bars if they did not behave themselves, for this was the lock-up.

Within a mile is Salisbury Hall, a fine country house built by Sir John Cuttes in the 16th century and refashioned about 1700 by Sir Jeremiah Snow. The latter spared no pains to adorn it within and without, bringing from the walls of Sopwell Nunnery at St Albans a number of plaster medallions of Roman emperors, thought to be 15th century. Here they still are, above the panelling in the hall, looking like copies of old coins magnified to nine feet round. Charles II must have admired them, for he was a frequent visitor here.

Flickr.

Leavesden

All Saints, lnk, is a not very interesting George Gilbert Scott building.

Mee missed it.

Flickr.https://www.flickr.com/photos/16162181@N05/sets/72157646785966822/

Watford, Christ Church

Christ Church, lnk, is a brick built turn of the last century build. Pretty run of the mill but I liked the round 'chapel'.

Pevsner missed it.

Watford. It is Hertfordshire’s biggest town, and though it is fast losing its old buildings, with factories springing up in their place, it has kept something from its ancient days. There are old houses in the narrow High Street, and behind them eight 16th-century almshouses with steep gables. Close by is an imposing building of 1704, with a wooden bell turret, once the Free School. Reset in a new timbered inn at the corner of Market Street is a 15th-century oak window. Cassiobury Park, though it has seen the last of the home of the Earls of Essex, has not lost all its ancient beauty, serving now partly for golf and partly as a park where all may sit in the shade of the willows of the River Gade. Watford has about 900 acres of parks and playing fields.

The old church is tucked away behind the High Street in a large churchyard. The massive 15th-century tower with a tiny spire rises up 100 feet. The wide chancel arch is 13th century, as is the south arcade; the broad nave and aisles are 15th, with a massive roof of tie-beams supported on a dozen angels and some quaint heads left from the 13th century. The north chancel chapel was added in 1595. The altar table, the ornate chairs, and two chests are Jacobean. There is a chair of Cromwell’s time, and a tall chest of the 18th century carved with medallions of the Evangelists and their winged emblems. The 18th-century carving on the pulpit is so delicate that its craftsman (Richard Bull) is believed to have been a pupil of Grinling Gibbons. The modern choir stalls are surely unique, for among their elaborate ornament are the portraits of two curates carved as poppyheads by their vicar. On a window-sill we found a fierce-looking dragon which was once the weathervane.

On the wall behind the stalls are portraits in brass of Judge de Hollis (buried here in Agincourt year) and his wife. Kneeling in stone, a serene dignified figure at her prayer desk in the chapel she built in 1595, is the widow of Sir Richard Morrison, and a unique brass tablet on the wall portrays three faithful servants of her son’s family. The family themselves, the Morrisons, are here in two elaborate monuments by Nicholas Stone, who himself records that he carved them royally and in the best manner. We see Sir Charles Morrison lying in his armour, with his daughter, the Countess of Sussex, and his son Charles kneeling in separate recesses at each end. This same son we see again on the other monument, this time reclining on a ledge above his beautiful wife, who gazes at the canopy. At their feet kneel their two sons, and at their head kneels their daughter Elizabeth, whose own son was the first Earl of Essex of Cassiobury Park. All around are memorials of their descendants.

Remembrances of many other Watford families are in the 15th-century chapel of the Heydons of the Grove, a lovely park by the River Gade, with a stately house owned long after them by the Earl of Clarendon. An anchor memorial is to George Pidcock, who fell boarding a pirate’s junk off Amoy in 1853. Robert Clutterbuck, the famous historian of Hertfordshire, lies in the churchyard, and his son James is also remembered here; he fell carrying the colours of the West Suffolks at Inkerman. A group of officer friends who died in the Indian Mutiny have a window picturing David and Jonathan. Thomas Bevan, who was organist here for 48 years, has a window with a lovely figure of St Cecilia.

Watford has a group of modern churches of much interest. The great tower rising above the roofs with a spire turret 117 feet high belongs to the Roman Catholic church, a place of much grandeur and beauty designed by John Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral. St James’s Church received as a contribution from the old church the pedestal of her Norman font, with its wavy mouldings and beaded ornament, and St John’s Church received from the old mother church her 18th-century font, which stands beside a modern stoup with two delightful cherubs. The pride of St John’s, however, is in its dark oak chapel screen with a gilded St Michael on one side and a silvered St George on the other. It is in memory of 47 men victims of the Great War, among them the famous General Maude, who lies far away at Baghdad, where he was struck down in the midst of his triumph. He was one of the bravest soldiers of the Great War, taking part in two masterly operations on Gallipoli, and leading his men with consummate genius to the relief of Kut and on to Baghdad. It was his last great victory. Baghdad was in the grip of cholera, and General Maude drank a glass of milk at a children’s party, and in four days was dead of cholera. He was a man of high integrity and deep religious faith, a bitter loss to the Army.

Flickr.

Watford, St Andrew

I think Pevsner's terse entry will suffice for St Andrew, lnk.

ST ANDREW, Church Road, 1857, by Teulon. Rather restrained for that architect. S aisle added 1865.

Watford. It is Hertfordshire’s biggest town, and though it is fast losing its old buildings, with factories springing up in their place, it has kept something from its ancient days. There are old houses in the narrow High Street, and behind them eight 16th-century almshouses with steep gables. Close by is an imposing building of 1704, with a wooden bell turret, once the Free School. Reset in a new timbered inn at the corner of Market Street is a 15th-century oak window. Cassiobury Park, though it has seen the last of the home of the Earls of Essex, has not lost all its ancient beauty, serving now partly for golf and partly as a park where all may sit in the shade of the willows of the River Gade. Watford has about 900 acres of parks and playing fields.

The old church is tucked away behind the High Street in a large churchyard. The massive 15th-century tower with a tiny spire rises up 100 feet. The wide chancel arch is 13th century, as is the south arcade; the broad nave and aisles are 15th, with a massive roof of tie-beams supported on a dozen angels and some quaint heads left from the 13th century. The north chancel chapel was added in 1595. The altar table, the ornate chairs, and two chests are Jacobean. There is a chair of Cromwell’s time, and a tall chest of the 18th century carved with medallions of the Evangelists and their winged emblems. The 18th-century carving on the pulpit is so delicate that its craftsman (Richard Bull) is believed to have been a pupil of Grinling Gibbons. The modern choir stalls are surely unique, for among their elaborate ornament are the portraits of two curates carved as poppyheads by their vicar. On a window-sill we found a fierce-looking dragon which was once the weathervane.

On the wall behind the stalls are portraits in brass of Judge de Hollis (buried here in Agincourt year) and his wife. Kneeling in stone, a serene dignified figure at her prayer desk in the chapel she built in 1595, is the widow of Sir Richard Morrison, and a unique brass tablet on the wall portrays three faithful servants of her son’s family. The family themselves, the Morrisons, are here in two elaborate monuments by Nicholas Stone, who himself records that he carved them royally and in the best manner. We see Sir Charles Morrison lying in his armour, with his daughter, the Countess of Sussex, and his son Charles kneeling in separate recesses at each end. This same son we see again on the other monument, this time reclining on a ledge above his beautiful wife, who gazes at the canopy. At their feet kneel their two sons, and at their head kneels their daughter Elizabeth, whose own son was the first Earl of Essex of Cassiobury Park. All around are memorials of their descendants.

Remembrances of many other Watford families are in the 15th-century chapel of the Heydons of the Grove, a lovely park by the River Gade, with a stately house owned long after them by the Earl of Clarendon. An anchor memorial is to George Pidcock, who fell boarding a pirate’s junk off Amoy in 1853. Robert Clutterbuck, the famous historian of Hertfordshire, lies in the churchyard, and his son James is also remembered here; he fell carrying the colours of the West Suffolks at Inkerman. A group of officer friends who died in the Indian Mutiny have a window picturing David and Jonathan. Thomas Bevan, who was organist here for 48 years, has a window with a lovely figure of St Cecilia.

Watford has a group of modern churches of much interest. The great tower rising above the roofs with a spire turret 117 feet high belongs to the Roman Catholic church, a place of much grandeur and beauty designed by John Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral. St James’s Church received as a contribution from the old church the pedestal of her Norman font, with its wavy mouldings and beaded ornament, and St John’s Church received from the old mother church her 18th-century font, which stands beside a modern stoup with two delightful cherubs. The pride of St John’s, however, is in its dark oak chapel screen with a gilded St Michael on one side and a silvered St George on the other. It is in memory of 47 men victims of the Great War, among them the famous General Maude, who lies far away at Baghdad, where he was struck down in the midst of his triumph. He was one of the bravest soldiers of the Great War, taking part in two masterly operations on Gallipoli, and leading his men with consummate genius to the relief of Kut and on to Baghdad. It was his last great victory. Baghdad was in the grip of cholera, and General Maude drank a glass of milk at a children’s party, and in four days was dead of cholera. He was a man of high integrity and deep religious faith, a bitter loss to the Army.

Flickr.

Watford, St John the Apostle & Evangelist

A late C19th build St John the Apostle & Evangelist, lnk, think warehouse combined with wedding cake.

Watford. It is Hertfordshire’s biggest town, and though it is fast losing its old buildings, with factories springing up in their place, it has kept something from its ancient days. There are old houses in the narrow High Street, and behind them eight 16th-century almshouses with steep gables. Close by is an imposing building of 1704, with a wooden bell turret, once the Free School. Reset in a new timbered inn at the corner of Market Street is a 15th-century oak window. Cassiobury Park, though it has seen the last of the home of the Earls of Essex, has not lost all its ancient beauty, serving now partly for golf and partly as a park where all may sit in the shade of the willows of the River Gade. Watford has about 900 acres of parks and playing fields.

The old church is tucked away behind the High Street in a large churchyard. The massive 15th-century tower with a tiny spire rises up 100 feet. The wide chancel arch is 13th century, as is the south arcade; the broad nave and aisles are 15th, with a massive roof of tie-beams supported on a dozen angels and some quaint heads left from the 13th century. The north chancel chapel was added in 1595. The altar table, the ornate chairs, and two chests are Jacobean. There is a chair of Cromwell’s time, and a tall chest of the 18th century carved with medallions of the Evangelists and their winged emblems. The 18th-century carving on the pulpit is so delicate that its craftsman (Richard Bull) is believed to have been a pupil of Grinling Gibbons. The modern choir stalls are surely unique, for among their elaborate ornament are the portraits of two curates carved as poppyheads by their vicar. On a window-sill we found a fierce-looking dragon which was once the weathervane.

On the wall behind the stalls are portraits in brass of Judge de Hollis (buried here in Agincourt year) and his wife. Kneeling in stone, a serene dignified figure at her prayer desk in the chapel she built in 1595, is the widow of Sir Richard Morrison, and a unique brass tablet on the wall portrays three faithful servants of her son’s family. The family themselves, the Morrisons, are here in two elaborate monuments by Nicholas Stone, who himself records that he carved them royally and in the best manner. We see Sir Charles Morrison lying in his armour, with his daughter, the Countess of Sussex, and his son Charles kneeling in separate recesses at each end. This same son we see again on the other monument, this time reclining on a ledge above his beautiful wife, who gazes at the canopy. At their feet kneel their two sons, and at their head kneels their daughter Elizabeth, whose own son was the first Earl of Essex of Cassiobury Park. All around are memorials of their descendants.

Remembrances of many other Watford families are in the 15th-century chapel of the Heydons of the Grove, a lovely park by the River Gade, with a stately house owned long after them by the Earl of Clarendon. An anchor memorial is to George Pidcock, who fell boarding a pirate’s junk off Amoy in 1853. Robert Clutterbuck, the famous historian of Hertfordshire, lies in the churchyard, and his son James is also remembered here; he fell carrying the colours of the West Suffolks at Inkerman. A group of officer friends who died in the Indian Mutiny have a window picturing David and Jonathan. Thomas Bevan, who was organist here for 48 years, has a window with a lovely figure of St Cecilia.

Watford has a group of modern churches of much interest. The great tower rising above the roofs with a spire turret 117 feet high belongs to the Roman Catholic church, a place of much grandeur and beauty designed by John Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral. St James’s Church received as a contribution from the old church the pedestal of her Norman font, with its wavy mouldings and beaded ornament, and St John’s Church received from the old mother church her 18th-century font, which stands beside a modern stoup with two delightful cherubs. The pride of St John’s, however, is in its dark oak chapel screen with a gilded St Michael on one side and a silvered St George on the other. It is in memory of 47 men victims of the Great War, among them the famous General Maude, who lies far away at Baghdad, where he was struck down in the midst of his triumph. He was one of the bravest soldiers of the Great War, taking part in two masterly operations on Gallipoli, and leading his men with consummate genius to the relief of Kut and on to Baghdad. It was his last great victory. Baghdad was in the grip of cholera, and General Maude drank a glass of milk at a children’s party, and in four days was dead of cholera. He was a man of high integrity and deep religious faith, a bitter loss to the Army.

Flickr.

Watford, St Mary

St Mary, open, is, as is common in Herts, violently over restored but still full of interest chief of which has to be the Nicholas Stone Morrison monuments but also some good glass, poppyheads and corbels. Possibly my favourite of the day.

ST MARY. Hidden from the High Street by a screen of low houses and placed in a large churchyard with an abundance of old trees.* The church itself is of flint, long, broad, and low, with a big, solid W tower. The tower has diagonal buttresses, battlements, a NE stair-turret, and a spike. The chancel dates from the early C13, as can be seen inside from the double Piscina and the chancel arch. Its capitals and double-chamfered arches repeat in the low long S arcade of the nave. The N arcade is C15, yet at first sight very similar. Both arcades have octagonal piers and two-centred arches. The differences lie in the taller piers, the more finely moulded capitals, and the slightly taller hollow-chamfered arches. The outer walls of the aisles, the clerestory, the nave roof with beams resting on carved angels, the S chancel chapel with tall slim octagonal pier and four-centred arches, and the tower are also C15. The N chancel chapel (Morrison Chapel) was added in 1595 (see the Tuscan columns of the arcade to the nave - cf. Hatfield church - and the mullioned and transomed E window). - PULPIT, 1714, by Richard Bull, with daintily carved borders to the panels, etc. - VESTMENT CUPBOARD, c. 1730, Flemish or French, with the four evangelists in medallions. - PLATE. Chalice, 1561; Chalice and Cover, 1610; two Flagons, 1628; two Breadholders, 1637; Almsdish, 1642. - MONUMENTS. Brasses to Hugh de Holes d. 1415 and his wife d. 1416 (?), largish figures, of good quality; the man, in judge’s robes, bigger than the woman. - Brass to three retainers of the Morrison family; two of them died in 1610 and 1613. - In the Morrison Chapel wall monument perhaps to Bridget, widow of Richard Morrison of Cassiobury and later wife of the second Earl of Bedford, who built the chapel in 1595 (no inscription): the usual kneeling figure between two columns. The monuments to her son and grandson are the chief glory of Watford church and among the best sculptural works of their date in the county. Both are by Nicholas Stone and both of alabaster and touch. Both also are of the most ambitious type: standing wall monuments with life-size figures. Sir Charles Morrison d. 1590 (made  in 1619). He rests semi-reclining between columns supporting two segmental arches and a larger segmental arch above. To the l. and r. outside the columns two kneeling figures against baldacchinos of richly crumpled fabric. No Jacobean mannerisms are left, and the skill of portraiture is admirable. Opposite the monument to Sir Charles Morrison d. 1628 (‘splendidissimo et clarissimo viro’). He lies semi-reclining behind and slightly above his wife’s recumbent figure. The monument this time is a tall four-poster and above the two segmental arches are two gables. Two kneeling figures outside the columns as in the earlier monument. - Many minor later monuments, e.g. Anne Derne d. 1790, graceful epitaph of varied marbles, by J. Golde of High Holborn.

* The churchyard was altered in 1952.

Watford. It is Hertfordshire’s biggest town, and though it is fast losing its old buildings, with factories springing up in their place, it has kept something from its ancient days. There are old houses in the narrow High Street, and behind them eight 16th-century almshouses with steep gables. Close by is an imposing building of 1704, with a wooden bell turret, once the Free School. Reset in a new timbered inn at the corner of Market Street is a 15th-century oak window. Cassiobury Park, though it has seen the last of the home of the Earls of Essex, has not lost all its ancient beauty, serving now partly for golf and partly as a park where all may sit in the shade of the willows of the River Gade. Watford has about 900 acres of parks and playing fields.

The old church is tucked away behind the High Street in a large churchyard. The massive 15th-century tower with a tiny spire rises up 100 feet. The wide chancel arch is 13th century, as is the south arcade; the broad nave and aisles are 15th, with a massive roof of tie-beams supported on a dozen angels and some quaint heads left from the 13th century. The north chancel chapel was added in 1595. The altar table, the ornate chairs, and two chests are Jacobean. There is a chair of Cromwell’s time, and a tall chest of the 18th century carved with medallions of the Evangelists and their winged emblems. The 18th-century carving on the pulpit is so delicate that its craftsman (Richard Bull) is believed to have been a pupil of Grinling Gibbons. The modern choir stalls are surely unique, for among their elaborate ornament are the portraits of two curates carved as poppyheads by their vicar. On a window-sill we found a fierce-looking dragon which was once the weathervane.

On the wall behind the stalls are portraits in brass of Judge de Hollis (buried here in Agincourt year) and his wife. Kneeling in stone, a serene dignified figure at her prayer desk in the chapel she built in 1595, is the widow of Sir Richard Morrison, and a unique brass tablet on the wall portrays three faithful servants of her son’s family. The family themselves, the Morrisons, are here in two elaborate monuments by Nicholas Stone, who himself records that he carved them royally and in the best manner. We see Sir Charles Morrison lying in his armour, with his daughter, the Countess of Sussex, and his son Charles kneeling in separate recesses at each end. This same son we see again on the other monument, this time reclining on a ledge above his beautiful wife, who gazes at the canopy. At their feet kneel their two sons, and at their head kneels their daughter Elizabeth, whose own son was the first Earl of Essex of Cassiobury Park. All around are memorials of their descendants.

Remembrances of many other Watford families are in the 15th-century chapel of the Heydons of the Grove, a lovely park by the River Gade, with a stately house owned long after them by the Earl of Clarendon. An anchor memorial is to George Pidcock, who fell boarding a pirate’s junk off Amoy in 1853. Robert Clutterbuck, the famous historian of Hertfordshire, lies in the churchyard, and his son James is also remembered here; he fell carrying the colours of the West Suffolks at Inkerman. A group of officer friends who died in the Indian Mutiny have a window picturing David and Jonathan. Thomas Bevan, who was organist here for 48 years, has a window with a lovely figure of St Cecilia.

Watford has a group of modern churches of much interest. The great tower rising above the roofs with a spire turret 117 feet high belongs to the Roman Catholic church, a place of much grandeur and beauty designed by John Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral. St James’s Church received as a contribution from the old church the pedestal of her Norman font, with its wavy mouldings and beaded ornament, and St John’s Church received from the old mother church her 18th-century font, which stands beside a modern stoup with two delightful cherubs. The pride of St John’s, however, is in its dark oak chapel screen with a gilded St Michael on one side and a silvered St George on the other. It is in memory of 47 men victims of the Great War, among them the famous General Maude, who lies far away at Baghdad, where he was struck down in the midst of his triumph. He was one of the bravest soldiers of the Great War, taking part in two masterly operations on Gallipoli, and leading his men with consummate genius to the relief of Kut and on to Baghdad. It was his last great victory. Baghdad was in the grip of cholera, and General Maude drank a glass of milk at a children’s party, and in four days was dead of cholera. He was a man of high integrity and deep religious faith, a bitter loss to the Army.

Flickr.

Watford, Holy Rood

Holy Rood, open, is a remarkably successful JF Bentley Gothic revival building - so successful that when I first saw it I thought it was St Mary. If the exterior is fine the interior, particularly the chancel, is magnificent. If you're going to do a Victorian Gothic revival this is the way to do it.

HOLY ROOD (R.C.), Market Street, 1883-90, by Bentley, then about 45 years old. One of the noblest examples of the refined, knowledgeable, and sensitive Gothic Revival of that time. The flint exterior combines vestries and other outer rooms into a square plan. The main accent is the square NW tower. In addition two turets with copper spires. Flint with stone bands in the Herts tradition; the tracery C14, but other detail clearly influenced by Arts and Crafts innovations. Plain nave, transept of two bays width with two-storeyed opening to the nave. This and the elevation of the chancel with square ambulatory and well-passage above it, in front of the large upper windows, are remarkable yet not obtrusively original.

Watford. It is Hertfordshire’s biggest town, and though it is fast losing its old buildings, with factories springing up in their place, it has kept something from its ancient days. There are old houses in the narrow High Street, and behind them eight 16th-century almshouses with steep gables. Close by is an imposing building of 1704, with a wooden bell turret, once the Free School. Reset in a new timbered inn at the corner of Market Street is a 15th-century oak window. Cassiobury Park, though it has seen the last of the home of the Earls of Essex, has not lost all its ancient beauty, serving now partly for golf and partly as a park where all may sit in the shade of the willows of the River Gade. Watford has about 900 acres of parks and playing fields.

The old church is tucked away behind the High Street in a large churchyard. The massive 15th-century tower with a tiny spire rises up 100 feet. The wide chancel arch is 13th century, as is the south arcade; the broad nave and aisles are 15th, with a massive roof of tie-beams supported on a dozen angels and some quaint heads left from the 13th century. The north chancel chapel was added in 1595. The altar table, the ornate chairs, and two chests are Jacobean. There is a chair of Cromwell’s time, and a tall chest of the 18th century carved with medallions of the Evangelists and their winged emblems. The 18th-century carving on the pulpit is so delicate that its craftsman (Richard Bull) is believed to have been a pupil of Grinling Gibbons. The modern choir stalls are surely unique, for among their elaborate ornament are the portraits of two curates carved as poppyheads by their vicar. On a window-sill we found a fierce-looking dragon which was once the weathervane.

On the wall behind the stalls are portraits in brass of Judge de Hollis (buried here in Agincourt year) and his wife. Kneeling in stone, a serene dignified figure at her prayer desk in the chapel she built in 1595, is the widow of Sir Richard Morrison, and a unique brass tablet on the wall portrays three faithful servants of her son’s family. The family themselves, the Morrisons, are here in two elaborate monuments by Nicholas Stone, who himself records that he carved them royally and in the best manner. We see Sir Charles Morrison lying in his armour, with his daughter, the Countess of Sussex, and his son Charles kneeling in separate recesses at each end. This same son we see again on the other monument, this time reclining on a ledge above his beautiful wife, who gazes at the canopy. At their feet kneel their two sons, and at their head kneels their daughter Elizabeth, whose own son was the first Earl of Essex of Cassiobury Park. All around are memorials of their descendants.

Remembrances of many other Watford families are in the 15th-century chapel of the Heydons of the Grove, a lovely park by the River Gade, with a stately house owned long after them by the Earl of Clarendon. An anchor memorial is to George Pidcock, who fell boarding a pirate’s junk off Amoy in 1853. Robert Clutterbuck, the famous historian of Hertfordshire, lies in the churchyard, and his son James is also remembered here; he fell carrying the colours of the West Suffolks at Inkerman. A group of officer friends who died in the Indian Mutiny have a window picturing David and Jonathan. Thomas Bevan, who was organist here for 48 years, has a window with a lovely figure of St Cecilia.

Watford has a group of modern churches of much interest. The great tower rising above the roofs with a spire turret 117 feet high belongs to the Roman Catholic church, a place of much grandeur and beauty designed by John Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral. St James’s Church received as a contribution from the old church the pedestal of her Norman font, with its wavy mouldings and beaded ornament, and St John’s Church received from the old mother church her 18th-century font, which stands beside a modern stoup with two delightful cherubs. The pride of St John’s, however, is in its dark oak chapel screen with a gilded St Michael on one side and a silvered St George on the other. It is in memory of 47 men victims of the Great War, among them the famous General Maude, who lies far away at Baghdad, where he was struck down in the midst of his triumph. He was one of the bravest soldiers of the Great War, taking part in two masterly operations on Gallipoli, and leading his men with consummate genius to the relief of Kut and on to Baghdad. It was his last great victory. Baghdad was in the grip of cholera, and General Maude drank a glass of milk at a children’s party, and in four days was dead of cholera. He was a man of high integrity and deep religious faith, a bitter loss to the Army.

Flickr.

Watford, St Michael & All Angels

St Michael & All Angels, lnk, is a large, unattractive utilitarian turn of the last century building - I'm not sure why I bothered.

Watford. It is Hertfordshire’s biggest town, and though it is fast losing its old buildings, with factories springing up in their place, it has kept something from its ancient days. There are old houses in the narrow High Street, and behind them eight 16th-century almshouses with steep gables. Close by is an imposing building of 1704, with a wooden bell turret, once the Free School. Reset in a new timbered inn at the corner of Market Street is a 15th-century oak window. Cassiobury Park, though it has seen the last of the home of the Earls of Essex, has not lost all its ancient beauty, serving now partly for golf and partly as a park where all may sit in the shade of the willows of the River Gade. Watford has about 900 acres of parks and playing fields.

The old church is tucked away behind the High Street in a large churchyard. The massive 15th-century tower with a tiny spire rises up 100 feet. The wide chancel arch is 13th century, as is the south arcade; the broad nave and aisles are 15th, with a massive roof of tie-beams supported on a dozen angels and some quaint heads left from the 13th century. The north chancel chapel was added in 1595. The altar table, the ornate chairs, and two chests are Jacobean. There is a chair of Cromwell’s time, and a tall chest of the 18th century carved with medallions of the Evangelists and their winged emblems. The 18th-century carving on the pulpit is so delicate that its craftsman (Richard Bull) is believed to have been a pupil of Grinling Gibbons. The modern choir stalls are surely unique, for among their elaborate ornament are the portraits of two curates carved as poppyheads by their vicar. On a window-sill we found a fierce-looking dragon which was once the weathervane.

On the wall behind the stalls are portraits in brass of Judge de Hollis (buried here in Agincourt year) and his wife. Kneeling in stone, a serene dignified figure at her prayer desk in the chapel she built in 1595, is the widow of Sir Richard Morrison, and a unique brass tablet on the wall portrays three faithful servants of her son’s family. The family themselves, the Morrisons, are here in two elaborate monuments by Nicholas Stone, who himself records that he carved them royally and in the best manner. We see Sir Charles Morrison lying in his armour, with his daughter, the Countess of Sussex, and his son Charles kneeling in separate recesses at each end. This same son we see again on the other monument, this time reclining on a ledge above his beautiful wife, who gazes at the canopy. At their feet kneel their two sons, and at their head kneels their daughter Elizabeth, whose own son was the first Earl of Essex of Cassiobury Park. All around are memorials of their descendants.

Remembrances of many other Watford families are in the 15th-century chapel of the Heydons of the Grove, a lovely park by the River Gade, with a stately house owned long after them by the Earl of Clarendon. An anchor memorial is to George Pidcock, who fell boarding a pirate’s junk off Amoy in 1853. Robert Clutterbuck, the famous historian of Hertfordshire, lies in the churchyard, and his son James is also remembered here; he fell carrying the colours of the West Suffolks at Inkerman. A group of officer friends who died in the Indian Mutiny have a window picturing David and Jonathan. Thomas Bevan, who was organist here for 48 years, has a window with a lovely figure of St Cecilia.

Watford has a group of modern churches of much interest. The great tower rising above the roofs with a spire turret 117 feet high belongs to the Roman Catholic church, a place of much grandeur and beauty designed by John Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral. St James’s Church received as a contribution from the old church the pedestal of her Norman font, with its wavy mouldings and beaded ornament, and St John’s Church received from the old mother church her 18th-century font, which stands beside a modern stoup with two delightful cherubs. The pride of St John’s, however, is in its dark oak chapel screen with a gilded St Michael on one side and a silvered St George on the other. It is in memory of 47 men victims of the Great War, among them the famous General Maude, who lies far away at Baghdad, where he was struck down in the midst of his triumph. He was one of the bravest soldiers of the Great War, taking part in two masterly operations on Gallipoli, and leading his men with consummate genius to the relief of Kut and on to Baghdad. It was his last great victory. Baghdad was in the grip of cholera, and General Maude drank a glass of milk at a children’s party, and in four days was dead of cholera. He was a man of high integrity and deep religious faith, a bitter loss to the Army.

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Croxley Green

All Saints, open, is a mess inside and out but has a Christopher Webb window, a really good aumbry and a very moving memorial to the fallen of John Dickinson & Co 1914-18 (Basildon Bond to anyone that that means anything to) where approaching 200 of their employees are listed as fallen.

ALL SAINTS, 1872, by J. Norton. In 1907 Temple Moore added a new nave to the S of the old (GR). The difference in quality is remarkable. Temple Moore’s design is original and interesting, with the lancet windows, and the wall-passage carried also along the straight E end. The arches towards the old building are roundheaded and rest on short heavy rectangular piers. Exterior of yellow brick with bands of stone.

Mee missed it.

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Rickmansworth, Our Lady Help of Christians

On the whole my aim here is to document CoE churches but I came across Our Lady on the HCiP site and added it to the visit mainly because it appeared to have stuck two fingers up to the local vernacular and swung a bit Essex with a hint of Cheshire from the porch. If I'm honest it was a bit of a disappointment inside but for a turn of the last century (1909) design it's more successful than many others I've seen.

Of note are the Nuttgens sanctuary windows.

Neither of the boys mention it - is this an oversight or an overlook?

Taking Stock

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Rickmansworth, St Mary the Virgin

If the overpowering smell of incense didn't notify me - and bear in mind I visited on a Thursday - (don't worry it soon wore off, I am after all a Catholic) the very prominent, and rather good, Stations of the Cross pointed to a very high CoE church. Given that I was surprised to see that it's an ecumenical church being shared with the Methodists - always a sensible decision.

St Mary, very open, is a Victorian concoction having been rebuilt in 1826 and then almost totally refurbed by Blomfield in 1890 and as such is the sort of Legoland Gothic revival church you'd expect - except it's rather good and the Burne-Jones east window is quality.

The exterior is almost impossible to successfully photograph, at least in summer, since it's surrounded by mature trees.

ST MARY. Rebuilt in 1826 and again in 1890. The architect then was Sir Arthur Blomfield. To him belongs everything we see now except the yellow brick aisles with their typical Early Gothic Revival windows, and the W tower which was kept from an earlier building of 1630. It has thick clasping buttresses, battlements, and a spike in the Herts tradition. Blomfield’s interior has the octagonal piers and two-centred arches of the county, and a clerestory. - STAINED GLASS, E window with Crucifixion by Burne-Jones, 1891. - PLATE. Chalice and Paten, 1509; Chalice and Paten, c. 1600; Chalice and Paten, 1628; Salver, 1692; Flagon, 1695. - MONUMENTS. Brass to Thomas Day and wives d. 1613 (N aisle). - Plain tombchest of Henry Cary, Earl of Monmouth d. 1661. - Epitaph to Sir Thomas Fatherley; later C17, with fine ornamentation.

Rickmansworth. Three rivers meet here, the Colne, the Chess, and the Gade, and as if they were not enough the Grand Union Canal passes the town on its way north. It has lovely riverside walks, fine open spaces, and a noble avenue of great trees. In the High Street are still a few of the old houses, among them Basing House, where William Penn brought his bride Gulielma Springett soon after their marriage. Here they lived four years. The charming timbered house called the Priory is much as they would see it, and so is the manor house, with its old chimneys, staircases, and panelling. The vicarage they would know has changed much, and has on it the date 1737, but it is one of the oldest in Hertfordshire, for it has Tudor ornament in a gable and timbers older still. The most famous house at Rickmansworth has been surrendered to the golfers, so that we may hope that this magnificent domain is safe from spoiling.

It is Moor Park which was given to the Earl of Oxford as a reward for his services on Bosworth Field, where the end of the march of Richard III gave Shakespeare the chance to say, “The day is done, the dog is dead.” After that Moor Park passed to Cardinal Wolsey, and after Wolsey’s fall it passed to the Earls of Monmouth, and finally to the Duke of Monmouth, who began building the house we see. He was, of course, the son of Charles II, and he dreamed of a great house and a throne. Both dreams were broken, for all the world knows how this most wretched man was dragged from a ditch after the Battle of Sedgemoor and beheaded on Tower Hill. As for his house, it was taken over in course of time by Benjamin Styles, who had grown rich in the South Sea Boom. He lavished a king’s ransom on Moor Park, spending £130,000 on it, engaging Sir James Thornhill, who had painted the dome of St Paul’s, to do the painting for him. After his day came Admiral Anson, who spent another £80,000, which he could well afford to do as he went round the world in 1744 and came home with £500,000 in Spanish treasure, and three years later seized £300,000 more from the French. The house has had its adventures since, but it has kept its grand portico with columns 50 feet high, the enormous hall with five marble doorways, and the original panels on the walls. And, whatever else it may lose, it must for ever keep the noble view from the highest point of the park, marked by a clump of noble trees. It is an unforgettable panorama.

The great tomb of the Monmouths is the chief monument in the church. In the tomb sleep the two earls, Robert Carey and his son Henry. They were strangely different characters, Robert, the son of a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, soldier and courtier, who was present in the last dramatic days of Queen Elizabeth when she lay refusing to die; it was he who rode in haste to Holyrood to tell King James of Scotland that he was now King of England, so launching the Stuart dynasty on its tragic way. James promised him much and gave him little, and at last he became chamberlain to Prince Charles, who made him an earl when he came to the throne. Henry Carey, though brought up in the gilded atmosphere of the court, loved most the quiet of the study, spending life translating histories of foreign lands while the history of his own was being written in blood.

Above the Monmouth tomb is a tablet to Sir Thomas Fotherley, who was active in the service of Charles I. There is a brass from those days showing Thomas Day with his two wives.

The church itself is mostly modern, rebuilt in 1890, but there remains the handsome 17th-century tower that William Penn would know, with its medieval wooden window tracery and its evil-looking gargoyles, and it has still the little spire the 17th century gave it.

The memorial to the men of Rickmansworth who never came back is set at a meeting of the roads with a background of trees; it has an upraised lion on a high pedestal, with a seated figure of Victory holding up a laurel wreath. Another memorial of much interest has been set up in the forecourt of Joan of Arc Convent School, where a statue of Joan was unveiled by the French ambassador in 1939.

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Mill End

I'm finding it hard to say anything about St Peter the Apostle, lnk, good or bad, since it is so utterly run of the mill. Google tells me that it was built in 1874 to the design of RC Sutton but I didn't follow him up as he appears, on this showing, a very mediocre architect. OK I did look him up and he was articled to Teulon (which explains a lot) and does appear to be a mediocre architect but he was responsible for building the scaffold for the last execution in Nottingham in 1864 - which is nice.

Neither Pevsner nor Mee noticed it.

West Hyde

I know I shouldn't but I rather liked the Neo-Norman St Thomas of Canterbury, lnk despite the peculiarity of it's sister church in Heronsgate being open; its over-the-topness is strangely appealling.

ST THOMAS, 1844, by Thomas Smith (GR). Flint with cemented brick dressings. In the Norman style. Nave, transepts, and narrower chancel. A porch and a corresponding excrescence in the angles between transepts and chancel. A roof ridge runs through the transepts and the crossing at right angles to the nave; an odd effect.

Mee missed it.

Heronsgate

Now here is an inexplicable piece of nonsense: the parish of Mill End and Heronsgate with West Hyde finds the first and last lnk whilst St John is open. To be fair there's not much to nick here it being a tiny chapel of ease but it is rather sweet.

Heronsgate itself is a very odd place. Originally a chartist settlement a Google earth search shows the original layout of the plots. It was also here that "from 1936 to 1955, a villa in Heronsgate was the global headquarters of the International Esperanto-League".

Neither Pevsner nor Mee bothered which seems a shame.

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Chorleywood

Christ Church is a dull Victorian suburban build with little to no merit.

CHRIST CHURCH, 1870, by Street. Flint, with low shingled W spire. The only other feature of interest is the triple traceried opening from the chancel into the S chapel.

Chorley Wood. It is the nearest Hertfordshire village to the Chalfont country, whose loveliness it shares. Here is a beautiful and extensive gorse common, and there are wide views over the valley of the Chess. In this village William Penn married the beautiful Gulielma Springett, whose charming personality lives in Thomas Ellwood’s story of the early Quakers and their sufferings under the tyranny of the Restoration. The marriage took place in 1672 at King John’s Farm, a brick-and-timber house of exquisite charm, still keeping the room, with its exposed beams, in which the event took place. In it hangs a copy of the portrait of Penn in armour, showing him as a soldier before he was a Quaker.

The church, with its shingled spire and shingled gables, is by the great common, with cedars in the churchyard. In a niche in the sanctuary is a statue of St John holding a chalice, in memory of John Gilliat, who died in 1912. A flat wreath of bronze marks the grave of Sir George Alexander, the famous actor who was laid to rest here in 1918. There are three bronze fawns beside it.

There is a bronze portrait of Sir George Alexander on the wall, the work of Mr G. L. Hartwell. Sir George was born at Reading in the middle of last century, and as a manufacturer’s son had a short business career before he turned actor. Then he joined Sir Henry Irving’s company and played under that great man’s wing for eight years. For most of the rest of his life he was actor-manager at St James’s theatre, which must always be associated with his memory. He was admirable in comedy parts and most successful as a producer, a man of sterling character and great personal charm who added lustre to the English stage.

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Sarratt

Holy Cross, locked no keyholder, is a bizarre building - something like a bastard child of a barn, a grain silo and a church - so naturally I loved it. Not only is the church great but the location is fantastic, this really is the prettiest part of Herts.

I was disappointed to find it lnk but not surprised since I was expecting this to be a largely inaccessible area, 15 churches in and around Rickmansworth and Watford plus 2 missed churches further east. It actually turned out that 8 were accessible and 9 weren't so not a bad return in Herts terms.

Still and all it would have been nice to find it open having travelled so far.

HOLY CROSS. Small church of flint, in its cross-plan and the masonry of short nave, transepts, and W parts of chancel C12 (see particularly the arches between these parts). The chancel was lengthened in the C13 (see the double Piscina) and again in the C14 (see the design of the renewed E window). The short W tower is of the C17 with an upper storey of the C16, which has pretty brick windows, brick quoins, and a brick top with saddleback roof. - PULPIT. C17, hexagonal with ornamented linenfold panelling and double balusters at the angles; square tester. - Plain old BENCHES in the N transept. - WALL PAINTINGS, very faded, on the E wall of the S transept. - PLATE. Paten, 1635; tall Chalice and Paten, 1764; Flagon, 1792. - MONUMENT. William Kingley d. 1611 and wife, the usual epitaph with kneeling figures facing each other.

Sarratt. We remember it for its long village green, running between an odd assortment of houses for about a quarter of a mile, with 17th-century farmhouses in the background, Rose Hall Farm having a Tudor rose in the plaster of its kitchen ceiling. And then, a little way off, is another picture - the church’s cheerful cluster of red-roofed gables seen against the red-roofed barns. Even the tower, rebuilt in the 15th century with Roman bricks in it ends in a gable, and the short nave, cross-shaped with its transepts, has a gabled saddleback roof, the only one in the county.

The Normans planned the nave and transepts, and though their walls are patched with later work the chancel is much as it was when it was lengthened in the 13th century; it has a flower-carved piscina, a double sedilia, deep sunken windows, and old roof beams. The chancel arch was made at the end of the 12th century, and similar arches open into the transepts. The arches opening into new aisles are modern, but the tower arch has stood 500 years and is littered with the names of louts of long ago. A mighty old roof beam crosses over it.

The tiny heads of a man and a woman, not three inches long, are among fragments of old brasses, their hands still raised in prayer. Another medieval head is in the glass of a window close by. Over the sedilia a Jacobean couple kneel in their sculptured memorial, William Kingsley and his wife, she in a flat hat, with five sons and a daughter all wearing ruffs, and below them a winged hourglass. Some of this family may have heard Richard Baxter preach from the carved Jacobean pulpit, which has a fine sounding board; it is said that Baxter once preached here. One of the bells was ringing at that time, and the chalice has been in use 300 years. Here is the font bowl to which the Normans brought their babies, and the stone lid of a coffin in which someone was laid to rest seven centuries ago.

On the walls the red outlines of frescoes are fading almost beyond recognition after 700 years; but Professor Tristram has interpreted them for us and his reconstructions are in the tower. We see a dramatic Ascension, with Christ’s feet showing below his robes and the hands of watchers raised towards them. There is an Annunciation picture, a high priest giving his blessing, and a curious kind of Pan playing the pipes while a shepherdess offers him a sheep from her flock. Modern artists have put their pictures in the windows, where we see little St John going with his mother to greet Mary and her Child, a charming scene; St Helena with her cross, and Barnabas laying money at the feet of the Apostles. By the church stand the Baldwin almshouses, founded 400 years ago, but rebuilt last century; and in Church Field, near Sarratt Bottom Farm, are the foundations of a Roman building, now covered over. It may be that the bricks in the church tower came from this buried Roman house.

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