St Mary's Church,

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, is the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of the town and its oldest place of worship. It is a Grade I listed building.

Background

Construction commenced in 1140 and the church was dedicated in 1150 although construction continued for another 30 years. It is not known why such a grand church was constructed in what at the time was a small hamlet. The building is cruciform in shape, with a

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

(the first part to be built), a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, south and north

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

s, and a tower. A

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

, one of the tallest in Europe, was added in the 14th century with a total height of 200 feet. It is topped by a gilded weather vane. A 19th century

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

was added on the church's north east corner. The church is built from the local clunch stone and

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. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

with some addition of

Roman brick Roman brick can refer either to a type of brick used in Ancient Roman architecture and spread by the Romans to the lands they conquered; or to a modern type inspired by the ancient prototypes. In both cases, it characteristically has longer and f ...

s. The architecture is

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

throughout apart from

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

es added in the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1302 a cell to

Ashridge Priory Ashridge Priory was a medieval college of Austin canons called variously the "Brothers of Penitence" or the "Boni Homines". It was founded by Edmund of Almain in 1283 who donated, among other things, a phial of Christ's blood to the abbey. It wa ...

was founded in Hemel Hempstead and the church had collegiate status until the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. A door at the base of the tower allowed the monks access to the church and avoided them mixing with the townspeople. The church contains a memorial to Sir Astley Paston Cooper. There is a Walker organ which was refurbished in 2008. A ring of five bells was recorded in the reign of Edward VI. None of these remain and the present ring is of 8 bells dating from 1590 to 1767. In 1950, as part of the 800th anniversary, the bells were retuned by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon and rehung on steel frames with completely new fittings. The eight bells are inscribed as follows: 1. (Treble) Lester and Pack - 1758 2. Lester and Pack - 1758 3. Chandler made me - 1688 4. Praise the Lord - 1633 5. Lawdate Domini - undated 6. God save King James - 1604 7. Sana Manet Christi - 1617 8. (Tenor) Lester and Pack - 1767 The font is original Norman, although surrounded by 19th century decoration.

References

* ''St Mary's Church guidebook'' with foreword by the rector Peter Cotton, 2008 * *

External links

St Mary's parish websiteDiocese of St Albans
Hemel Hempstead, St. Mary's Church Former collegiate churches in England History of Hertfordshire Tourist attractions in Hertfordshire Hemel Hempstead, St. Mary's Church {{england-church-stub