Description

THERFIELD CHURCH LANE
TL 3337
(West side)
Therfield
9/100 Church of St. Mary
27.5.68
GV II

Parish church. 1878 rebuilding of C14 church. Porch added 1906, tower
1911. By G.E. Pritchett. Flint rubble, largely knapped. Stone dressings.
Leaded roofs with tiles on S porch. 4 bay nave with aisles. 3 bay
chancel. NE vestry and organ bay replacing Medieval chantry chapel. W
tower. S porch. Gothic Revival Style. Chancel: 5 light E window,
elaborately traceried pointed arched head. Plinth. String course at sill
level. 2 stage angle buttresses. Moulded coping to gable parapet,
trefoil in gable, ridge cross. To S: 3 restored C14 windows all of 2
cusped lights with quatrefoil traceried pointed arched heads, that to
left is taller having a transom near base. Intermediate buttress with
steps up to a door in double ovolo moulded pointed arched surround.
Stone and knapped flint chequerwork in parapet with moulded coping. To N
a single restored C14 2 light window with a quatrefoil head. Stack with
offsets and crenellated capping to 2 bay lean-to vestry and organ bay,
ogee headed I and 2 light windows, door with depressed arched head. Nave
and N aisle have 4 windows each; 2 lights with cusped ogee heads to each
light, varying foiled tracery patterns, buttresses to each bay on aisle
with a diagonal buttress to W. Stone coped parapets to E and W on aisle
and at E end of nave which has a trefoil and ridge cross. 3 light window
in aisle W end. Nave and S aisle are as to N but aisle has diagonal
buttresses and 3 light windows at both ends. To W of centre is S porch.
Inner pointed arch, large arch to outer opening, heavily moulded with
shafted jambs, angle buttresses, pinnacled to S, kneelers to coped gable
parapet with ridge cross. 2 light windows in returns. 4 stage tower:
entrance to W, heavily moulded pointed arch. String course at sill level
of a 2 light window with a foiled head steps down over door. 3rd stage
has small lights in 3 sides, clock to E. 3 stage angle buttresses.
Belfry has paired 2 light louvred openings, foiled pointed heads, mask
stopped hood moulds. Cornice to embattled parapet of flint and stone
chequerwork. Pyramidal roof with weathervane finial. To S a semi-
octagonal stair turret with chamfered pointed arch to door, small
lights, buttresses to N and S where tower meets nave. Interior: double
chamfered pointed chancel arch with semi-octagonal responds with caps
and piers, carved stops to hood mould. Double chamfered tower arch with
short semi-octagonal responds with unfinished caps. 4 bay nave arcades
follow C14 model: 4 half columns with slender colonnettes in angles,
moulded caps and bases, double chamfered pointed arches, hood moulds
with carved stops. Short shafts in clerestorey to re-used C15 timber
corbels, full figure angels, C19 roof with cusped bracing, re-used C15
timber bosses, also in aisle roofs. More steeply pitched braced chancel
roof. Chancel S wall has an early C14 reset double piscina, moulded
arches, shafted jambs with moulded caps and bases, triple sedilia with
cusped heads, C15 restored. Chancel N wall recess for an early tomb with
a moulded 4 centred arched head, recess with a cusped head. Fragments
from Medieval church in vestry. Small recumbent figure with City of
London crest on small stone, coffin slab with low relief cross, scroll
brackets, pediments and angel corbels. Late C14 or C15 octagonal font
in nave, broad base to plain shaft with broader octagonal bowl.
C17 barley sugar communion rails with moulded hand rail. Octagonal
pulpit with raised fielded panels, dentilled cornice. C19 pews removed
from Church of St. Mary, Stoke Newington. Royal Arms of Charles II over
S entrance. Monuments: N aisle wall to Ann Horton, wife of F. Turner,
d.1677, restored 1966. Cedar plaque with central epitaph, flanking
figures of Time and Death in niches with enriched surrounds, raised
panels, swags below, cornice with central open pediment holding blank
cartouche and supporting reclining female figures with flanking urns. S
aisle wall: marble epitaph to S. Turner and wife, d.1774, open pediment
with urn, arms at base. Slab with pediment to E. Turner, d.1756. Chancel
S wall epitaph with pediment to H. Etough, d.1757. C17 and C18 initialed
stones in chancel walls. Reset C18 floor slabs in tower walls. Chancel
SW window has fragments of C14 and C15 glass, pinnacled canopies and
shields. (St. Albans Architectural and Archaeological Society
Transactions, 1884, p.22: RCHM 1910: VCH 1912: Pevsner 1977).

Listing NGR: TL3344737093

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26471275

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)