St Etheldreda's is the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church of Old Hatfield,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Parts of the building are 13th century and there is evidence there was a church here before this in Saxon times. It is situated in the old village of Hatfield just east of the modern town of Hatfield and close to the walls of

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a Grade I listed English country house, country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean architecture, Jacobean hous ...

, once a royal palace. It once served Hatfield House, as well as the village, as a place of worship and is exceptionally grand for a parish church. The dedication to St Etheldreda derives from the Bishops of Ely for whom she is a

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

. She once occupied the House when it was a bishops' palace.

Description

The church stands at the top of a hill with Old Hatfield village centre to the west. The building material is largely

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

. It is

cruciform A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...

with a tower at the western end. Most construction was between the 13th and 15th centuries. Two

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

s have been added on either side of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

; on the north side is the ''Salisbury Chapel'' and on the south side the ''Brocket Chapel''. The Salisbury Chapel is the traditional burial place of the Cecil family and contains the ornate tomb of Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury. Two British Prime Ministers,

Lord Melbourne Henry William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (15 March 177924 November 1848) was a British Whig politician who served as the Home Secretary and twice as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His first premiership ended when he was dismissed ...

and

Lord Salisbury Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903), known as Lord Salisbury, was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United ...

(both the first and last Prime Ministers of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

's reign), are also interred here. Some rebuilding, particularly of the window

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

, was done during the Victorian era. Historically, St Etheldreda's Church had a steeple on top of the west tower and this is shown in many early illustrations. It was last re-erected in 1847 to commemorate the visit to the town of

and

Prince Albert Prince Albert most commonly refers to: *Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria *Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco Prince Albert may also refer to: Royalty * Alb ...

. However it was removed in 1930. There are eight bells in the tower which now form a

Carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

, installed in 1786. It is set to play different tunes on each day of the week. There are many memorials, the oldest being a knight in armour of about 1160.

References

External links

Church plan and list of monuments
St. Etheldreda, Bishops Hatfield, Guide First Edition, 1939. Published by the British Publishing Co. Ltd., Gloucester. Accessed May 2016

at the church's website. Accessed May 2016, Archive December 2019.

From Topographical Dictionary of England, 1831. Accessed May 2016
St. Etheldreda
atfield Churches by Peter Massingham (2009) Accessed May 2016
St. Etheldreda's
'Parishes: Hatfield', in ''A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3'', ed. William Page (London, 1912), pp. 91–111. published at ''British History Online'' pp 91–111 Accessed May 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Etheldreda's Church Hatfield 13th-century church buildings in England Hatfield, Hertfordshire Hatfield Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne