stiffleaf's hertfordshire churches
  • Visiting Hertfordshire churches
  • Contact
  • Locked churches, and Mammon and the church
  • Architectural style in Hertfordshire churches.
  • Fonts, glass, woodwork and tiles in Hertfordshire churches.
  • Hertfordshire church monuments.
  • Glossary and links.
  • Architectural timeline
  • Abbots Langley church, Hertfordshire
  • Albury church, Hertfordshire
  • Aldbury church, Hertfordshire
  • Aldenham church, Hertfordshire
  • Anstey church, Hertfordshire
  • Ardeley church, Hertfordshire
  • Ashwell church, Hertfordshire
  • Ayot St.Lawrence churches, Hertfordshire
  • Baldock church, Hertfordshire
  • Barkway church, Hertfordshire
  • Bengeo church, Hertfordshire
  • Benington church, Hertfordshire
  • Berkhamsted church, Hertfordshire
  • Bishop's Stortford church, Hertfordshire
  • Braughing church, Hertfordshire
  • Brent Pelham church, Hertfordshire
  • Broxbourne church, Hertfordshire
  • Caldecote church, Hertfordshire
  • Cheshunt church, Hertfordshire
  • Chipping Barnet church, Hertfordshire
  • Clothall, church, Hertfordshire
  • Cottered church, Hertfordshire
  • Cuffley church, Hertfordshire
  • Datchworth church, Hertfordshire
  • East Barnet church, Hertfordshire
  • Eastwick church, Hertfordshire
  • Flamstead church, Hertfordshire
  • Furneux Pelham church, Hertfordshire
  • Gilston church, Hertfordshire
  • Great Amwell church, Hertfordshire
  • Great Gaddesden church
  • Great Hormead church, Hertfordshire
  • Great Offley church, Hertfordshire
  • Great Wymondley church, Hertfordshire
  • Hatfield church, Hertfordshire
  • Hemel Hempstead church, Hertfordshire
  • Hertford churches, Hertfordshire
  • Hertingfordbury church, Hertfordshire
  • High Wych church, Hertfordshire
  • Hitchin church, Hertfordshire
  • Hunsdon church, Hertfordshire
  • Ippollitts church, Hertfordshire
  • Kings Langley church, Hertfordshire
  • Knebworth churches, Hertfordshire
  • Little Gaddesden church, Hertfordshire
  • Little Hadham church, Hertfordshire
  • Little Hormead church, Hertfordshire
  • Little Munden church, Hertfordshire
  • Markyate church, Hertfordshire
  • Meesden church, Hertfordshire
  • Much Hadham church, Hertfordshire
  • Nettleden church, Hertfordshire
  • Newnham church, Hertfordshire
  • North Mymms church, Hertfordshire
  • Oxhey chapel, Hertfordshire
  • Redbourn church, Hertfordshire
  • Royston church and cave
  • St.Albans churches, Hertfordshire
  • St.Albans cathedral, Hertfordshire
  • St.Pauls Walden church, Hertfordshire
  • Sawbridgeworth church, Hertfordshire
  • Standon church, Hertfordshire
  • Stanstead Abbotts church, Hertfordshire
  • Stanstead St. Margaret church, Hertfordshire
  • Stocking Pelham church, Hertfordshire
  • Thorley church, Hertfordshire
  • Walkern church, Hertfordshire
  • Ware church, Hertfordshire
  • Waterford church, Hertfordshire
  • Watford churches, Hertfordshire
  • Watton-at-Stone church, Hertfordshire
  • Weston church, Hertfordshire
  • Wheathampstead church, Hertfordshire
  • Wyddial church, Hertfordshire
  • Wormley church, Hertfordshire
St. Vincent, Newnham

Although the church wasn't on the lists of those open for Heritage Open Days, I saw it through churchyard trees on the way to busy Caldecote. Like that nearby church, the tower was raised on arches within the end of the nave, though here it was expanded when a clerestory and a stair turret were added, with battlements all round, in the fifteenth century. There's a south aisle here too, as well as a porch, pretty much all covered in roman cement, a sure sign that the nineteenth century restoration was of an early date. The nave and aisles all look perpendicular, but the chancel windows have decorated tracery to south and east, and two early english lancets to the north. Inexplicably, most books claim that the east window is fifteenth century, when it's obviously work of the early fourteenth.
Picture

Picture

Picture

Inside the porch , much graffiti of all ages, and two nice shield-carrying angels remain from the original roof. The south door is fourteenth century, as is the south arcade inside, and a pretty early nineteenth century gothick chamber organ stands in the aisle.   The floor throughout  is made up of bricks, a nicely rustic practical touch. A rather dull fifteenth century font stands at the west end of the nave; close by are the wall paintings only re-discovered in 1963.
Picture

Picture

PictureOdd graffiti.

The whole wide expanse of the north wall  is covered in the remains of murals below the clerestory lights.As usual, St. Christopher has pride of place opposite the door, with fish frolicking about his feet. The ragged staff he carries is equally clear, and you can just about make out a kneeling donor on the left above the cliffs at the side of the stream. This saint was always placed in such a prominent position, as a sight of this image was said to ensure a good death. In mediaeval terms, that didn't mean safety from harm, but rather guaranteed that you wouldn't die unshriven. To the right can be seen a large roundel, with enough of a dragon's wing and clawed feet to judge this to be a mural of George and the dragon. If you look carefully you can just make out the lance piercing the beast's body. Next to the window besides the pulpit are faint remains of a hooded figure, and bits of an earlier scheme remain below the St. Christopher, fourteenth century saints in an arcade.
PictureC15 angel on roof.

PictureEarly C19th gothick organ

PictureDyer memolrial of 1697

A couple of small brasses remain in the chancel; the Jacobean one names and portrays each of the children of the deceased. The only memorial of any pretension is a baroque tablet of 1697 to Lady Dame Thomazine Dyer, an heiress in her own right who married a baronet. All of her descendants have carried her maiden name of Swinnerton ever since. There's a nice gothick organ, and odd cyphers and crosses amongst the graffiti scattered around the church, which is pleasantly uncluttered with modern junk; all in all , worth a visit for its rustic atmosphere, which feels remarkably untouched by the modern age. Open most days too, thankfully.

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