St. Mary's Church is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

church located in

Welwyn Welwyn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the nearby villages and settlements of Digswell, Mardley Heath and Oaklands. The village is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, to ...

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. It is north of the

River Mimram The River Mimram is a chalk stream in Hertfordshire, England. It runs from its source near Whitwell in Hertfordshire to join the River Lea at Hertford. Geography The River Mimram rises from a spring to the north-west of Whitwell, in North Her ...

and within the Welwyn

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

. The present church building is a

grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

History

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 ...

and

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 ...

of the church were built in the thirteenth century, most likely on the site of a destroyed

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

chapel. The nave was modified to include a nave aisle in 1662, and its tower was rebuilt at this time. Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977) The church was further expanded between 1867 and 1870 with the addition of an organ chamber, a vestry and a choir aisle, the restoration being supported by Charles Willes Wilshere. The present tower was built in 1910 and the church house, constructed on the former northern part of the

churchyard In Christian countries, a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church (building), church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster S ...

, was built in 2007.

Current use

As of November 2020, the church is open daily to members of the public.

References

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External links

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- Official church site Grade II listed churches in Hertfordshire Churches in Hertfordshire Religious buildings and structures completed in 1662