St Mary's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of

Little Hormead Little Hormead is a village and former civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is a few miles away from the small town of Buntingford and near the village of Great Hormead. In 1931 the parish had a population of 149. On 1 April 19 ...

, Hertfordshire, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is under the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. The church is particularly noted for its Norman door, made of wood and ironwork. It is described as a "work of outstanding importance", and a "rare and precious survival".

History

The church dates from the 11th century. It was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

as serving the villages of Little Hormead and

Great Hormead Great Hormead is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Hormead in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It stands near the River Quin, on the B1038 road. The village of Little Hormead ...

. The

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 ...

was rebuilt in the early 13th century and a

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

was added in the 15th century. A south porch was added in the 18th century. In 1888 the church was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard ...

, during which the east end was rebuilt and the bellcote was reconstructed. In the 13th century St Nicholas' Church had been built in Great Hormead, and Little Hormead lost its independent

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

in 1886. It was

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...

in the Churches Conservation Trust in 1995.

Architecture

Exterior

St Mary's is constructed in

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 stone dressings. The south porch is in brick, and the roofs have red tiles. The bellcote is timber with a pyramidal roof. There is a

canonical sundial A tide dial, also known as a Mass or scratch dial, is a sundial marked with the canonical hours rather than or in addition to the standard hours of daylight. Such sundials were particularly common between the 7th and 14th centuries in Europe, at w ...

on the south wall. The plan of the church consists of a tall narrow

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 ...

without

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

s, a chancel at a lower level, a south porch, and a bellcote at the west end. Much of the church 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 ...

in style, particularly the nave. This includes the north and south doorways, a north window and the chancel arch. The south window in the nave dates from the 15th century. The two-light west window was inserted during the 1888 restoration and is in

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

style. The east window in the chancel is a triple lancet. In the south wall of the chancel are two 13th-century lancet windows, a large 15th-century window, and a priest's door.

Interior

The octagonal font dates from the early 14th century and has panels of blank

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 the ...

around its bowl. In the southeast corner of the chancel is a 15th-century

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

. Above the chancel arch is a carved and painted Royal coat of arms of Charles II dated 1660. The 12th-century north door, described as having a "most lavish display" of ironwork, is no longer "''in situ''", but is preserved inside the church. It consists of two interlacing quatrefoil patterns, around which is a border containing scrolls, all of which is surmounted by a serpentine dragon. Dendrochronology has confirmed that the trees from which the door is built were felled between about 1130 and about 1150.

References

External links