Churches in Hertford.
All Saints', Hertford St.Andrew, Hertford Immaculate Conception, Hertford
The county town once held several mediaeval churches, but they’ve all gone the way of the dodo, and the replacements don’t make up for their loss. Of five C. of E. originals, three have disappeared; St. Andrew is an 1879 replacement by J. Johnson apart from one lone arch, a stoup and some unmemorable memorials, and All Saints was only completed in 1905. This last is an alien invader, designed as a Northern Edwardian church by Paley and Austin, built in Runcorn stone and now cut off from the town by the dreadfully designed ring road. On its own terms it’s not a bad church, with good craftsmanship on show, but it’s not a Hertfordshire church, and it’s too coldly conceived to love.
There are one or two tombs in the extensive churchyard worthy of special note; two millstones serve for an eighteenth century millwright and his wife, and amongst the many old memorials there is a cast iron topped chest tomb to a benefactor of the church, whose legacy would stop were his tomb to fall in ruins.
All Saints', Hertford St.Andrew, Hertford Immaculate Conception, Hertford
The county town once held several mediaeval churches, but they’ve all gone the way of the dodo, and the replacements don’t make up for their loss. Of five C. of E. originals, three have disappeared; St. Andrew is an 1879 replacement by J. Johnson apart from one lone arch, a stoup and some unmemorable memorials, and All Saints was only completed in 1905. This last is an alien invader, designed as a Northern Edwardian church by Paley and Austin, built in Runcorn stone and now cut off from the town by the dreadfully designed ring road. On its own terms it’s not a bad church, with good craftsmanship on show, but it’s not a Hertfordshire church, and it’s too coldly conceived to love.
There are one or two tombs in the extensive churchyard worthy of special note; two millstones serve for an eighteenth century millwright and his wife, and amongst the many old memorials there is a cast iron topped chest tomb to a benefactor of the church, whose legacy would stop were his tomb to fall in ruins.
The small Catholic church of the Immaculate Conception was built by Clutton in 1858 near the site of the priory; it’s quite pretty, and has recently had its apse gloriously redecorated with lots of gold and painted saints including a bluecoat boy, presumably Edmund Campion, due to the school’s past link with the town, although the connection antedated Campion's education at Christ's Hospital in London and his bloody execution for treason as a Jesuit.
This is the first church in which I’ve noticed the font to be locked; do the witches in Hertford still steal holy water? Close by is the Friends’ meeting house of 1670, the oldest in the country built specifically for the job. In the centre of town one solitary thirteenth century window with a dog-tooth moulding stands beside the road, all that remains of St. Mary the Less. St.Andrew's was rebuilt in 1869 by J. Johnson retaining only a nondescript C15th doorway and a couple of memorials from the old church. The steeple was only finished in 1876; leaving us with a big-boned high Victorian church on which much money but little originality has been spent. There's a Quaker meeting house near the east station that dates from 1670, making it the oldest place of worship left in the town. It's brick, unassuming, and retains original furnishings inside.
To find older ecclesiastical architecture here, you have to visit those churches swallowed up by the town’s growth, with Bengeo and Hertingfordbury both well worth a look. This town is a joy to explore, especially on market day, with jettied inns, the Gothick castle, an Adam town hall, and a whole gamut of Regency styles. Everything from pargetted houses and coaching hostelries to the gloriously brash neo-Egyptian house is tumbled together in meandering mediaeval streets. The hopeless museum is a let-down; and it's not worth a special trip for the churches though they are generally open; but this is one of those rare towns worth visiting for itself alone.
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