St. Lawrence, Nettleden.
The village hides in the maze of lanes that cross the Ashridge estate between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead, the church itself crouching down behind rows of billowing yews, the low fifteenth century tower only just peeping over their evergreen barrel-like bulk. Neatly cut, they are still close to closing the view up to the porch. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in brick in 1811, remarkably mellow for its age. The window tracery must have been altered later that century. The overall impression is of brick glimpsed through topiary, though the flint tower and south side of the nave have been covered with cement. Lumps of puddingstone in the graveyard probably came from a Norman predecessor, and a mediaeval stone coffin sits close to the tower.
The village hides in the maze of lanes that cross the Ashridge estate between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead, the church itself crouching down behind rows of billowing yews, the low fifteenth century tower only just peeping over their evergreen barrel-like bulk. Neatly cut, they are still close to closing the view up to the porch. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in brick in 1811, remarkably mellow for its age. The window tracery must have been altered later that century. The overall impression is of brick glimpsed through topiary, though the flint tower and south side of the nave have been covered with cement. Lumps of puddingstone in the graveyard probably came from a Norman predecessor, and a mediaeval stone coffin sits close to the tower.
 Porch windows
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 East window
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I could judge little more as the door in the neo-Tudor porch was locked ; either despite or due to the position far from the madding multitudes the church has never been open and no key holder is given. This may be because the village is full of incomers, many commuters seem to feel no affinity with the past of their adopted villages. Church wardens often fear theft, yet companies that insure churches all say that open churches are safer than those kept locked, less likely to be vandalised, more likely to avoid redundancy. A locked church gains no friends, and these buildings need all they can get to survive.
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