Description

TL 1314 SW HARPENDEN CHURCH GREEN
(north side)
HARPENDEN

16/37 Parish Church of
St Nicholas
26.7.51

II*

Parish Church. C15 W tower. Remainder of church rebuilt in
polychrome early-Gothic style by W. Slater in 1862. N aisle
added 1898-9 by R. Brown and Sons. E end of church reordered in
1962. The tower, which was restored in 1980, is flint rubble
with stone and cement dressings. 3 stages. Large stepped angle
buttresses. Octagonal stair turret at SW angle. Crenellated
parapet. Lead spike. Moulded cement bands and plinth. W door
has deep hollowed surround. 3-light window above with cinquefoil
lights. 2-light belfry window with trefoiled lights. Hood
moulds. Rest of church is rock-face stone with smooth stone
dressings. Flush sandstone bands and polychrome arch heads.
Machine tile roof. Simple bar tracery windows in a mid-C12
French style. Aisle windows are 2 lights with quatrefoils;
transept ends 3-light; E end with 5 lights and an oculus with 4
quatrefoils. Interior has a 5-bay nave. Drum sandstone piers
with moulded bases and leaf-carved capitals. Aisles have broad
arches on E and W sides of transepts, each with continuous roll
mouldings. Chancel has 2 bays either side, each with a drum
pier. At W end of S aisle is a good C12 Purbeck marble font:
octagonal with 2 shallow pointed panels on each face; 8 round
supporting colonettes. Brasses: 1456 to William Anabull; 1559
to William Cressye, both near pulpit. Good C18 and early-C19
wall monuments on N and S interior walls of tower including (N
wall) large monument to Godman Jenkyn (d.1746): obelisk with
armorial plaque, sarcophagus base with lobe fluting; black and
white marble. C18 monument above with fluted Doric pilasters and
broken segmental pediment. S wall has 6 smaller wall plaques.
(Pevsner (1977)).

Listing NGR: TL1326514427

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Nicholas Church, Harpenden at Wikipedia
• St Nicholas Church, Harpenden official website
• Wikidata Q7594950

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

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990