St.Mary, Cheshunt
There are two towers visible from the M25 motorway, peeping over the trees that do a good job of camouflaging this dormitory town. One is the tall church tower with its eighteenth century cupola, the other the High Victorian tower over Cheshunt College. This is part of the splendid additions added by Lander and Bedells in 1870 to the Georgian core of the original college which had belonged to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, a Calvinist group of individual churches, some few of which remain in England and Sierra Leone. The college stands between the New River and the east end of the church, with what little remains of the old village nearby pretty much swallowed up by waves of developement.
There are two towers visible from the M25 motorway, peeping over the trees that do a good job of camouflaging this dormitory town. One is the tall church tower with its eighteenth century cupola, the other the High Victorian tower over Cheshunt College. This is part of the splendid additions added by Lander and Bedells in 1870 to the Georgian core of the original college which had belonged to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, a Calvinist group of individual churches, some few of which remain in England and Sierra Leone. The college stands between the New River and the east end of the church, with what little remains of the old village nearby pretty much swallowed up by waves of developement.
 Top of the college tower
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 Bodley's porch of 1884 and the C15th tower
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 1870 college buildings
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The church mostly dates from between 1418 and 1448, though the south chapel is an addition by Clarke of 1874 and the porch dates from Bodley's restoration in 1883-4, when he did a lot inside too. The churchyard with its large specimen trees is full of Georgian gravestones and chest tombs, many of which are in a parlous state despite retaining their iron railings to an unusual extent. Restoration of these tombs is an urgent necessity, yet from the look of the graveyard not about to take place any time soon. The church was locked when I visited, and looks rather unloved like the rest of the town but it's worth walking once round to see the tombs and the two storey sacristy on the north side of the church.
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The church was locked, and no keyholder given even on their website. No contact addresses or e-mail are given either. This seems to be one of those many churches in the south of Hertfordshire that has turned in upon itself and pulled the drawbridge up: next stop redundancy?
