St Mary's Church
The church of St. Mary is a building of flint, in the Lancet and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, with Brograve chapel and organ chamber on the north side, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, large south porch and an embattled western tower, with spire, containing a new clock, erected by the parishioners in Nov. and Dec. 1887, at a cost of £95, and 8 bells, dating from 1615 to 1745; the B treble bells were given in 1745 by William Freeman esq. of Hamels, who died Feb. 1749, and in 1886 the whole peal was rehung on the old frame: there is a brass with effigies to a civilian and his wife, c. 1480; another of the same kind, c. 1490; one, with effigy, to Barbara, wife of Thomas Hanchett esq. ob. 1561, and inscriptions to Richard Grene gent. ob. 1561, and another of the same name, ob. 1610: on the north wall of the chancel, removed from the Brograve chapel, is a monument to Symeon Brograve esq. of Hamels, ob. 21 Jan. 1638-9, and Dorothy (Leventhorpe) his wife, ob. 4 Aug. 1645; here also is a fine monument, with recumbent figures, to his younger brothers, Charles Brograve, ob. 8 Dec. 1602, and John Brograve, barrister-at-law, ob. 4 June, 1625: over the Brograve vault is a slab of black marble inscribed to Sir Thomas Brograve, 3rd and last bart. of Hamels, and great grandson of Symeon, ob. 6 July, 1707, and Elizabeth (Maynard) his wife, daughter of William, Lord Maynard, of Easton, Essex: there is also a very large and fine monument to the Rev. Ralph Freeman D.D. of Hamels and Prebendary of Sarum, and Agnes his with, both of whom died in July 1772, and to others from that family from 1742, and a mural monument, with bust, to Augustine, son of Sir Simeon Steward kt. of Lakenheath, Suffolk, ob. 1597: in the chancel is a memorial of brass on black marble to Miss Catherine Martha Mellish, late of Hamels Park, d. Feb. 1880, and her father and mother; John Mellish esq. M.P. for Great Grimsby, d. 9 April, 1798, from injuries inflicted by highwaymen on Houndslow Heath six days previously, and Charlotte (Pinfold) his wife, d. 8 April, 1797: in the vestry is an old painting of "the Resurrection," said to have been brought from Hamels Park: the communion plate includes a silver flagon and chalice, presented in 1718 by Mrs. Freeman: the old pulpit formerly belonged to the church of St. Christopher-le-stocks, in the City of London, on the demolition of which it was given to this church in 1784 by the Rev. Peter Thomas Burford, then vicar of Braughing: in 1838 the nave roof was raised and recovered and other repairs effected at a cost of over £300: in 1852-3 the tower and spire were renovated, under the direction of Mr. Savill, architect, at a cost of £130, and from 1855 to 1861 the clerestory and other windows and the porch were repaired: in 1866 the south aisle was restored at an expense of nearly £200 by Mr. Perry, architect, and in 1872-3 the exterior walls of the chancel were refaced with flints, the wood work of the nave roof made good and the tower arch opened, the total sum expended being about £500: the work of restoration was continued and completed in 1888, under the direction of Mr. Edmund Buckle, architect, when the fabric was carefully repaired, new flooring laid down and warming apparatus constructed, the mutilated windows refilled with tracery and glazed, and the interior reseated with oak stalls and benches and otherwise refitted: the communion table of oak is placed below a stone ledge built into the east wall, and the table cloth, with a frontal of velvet and ribbed silk, was worked by Mrs. Rooke Pennington, of Bolton, Lancs, and presented to the church by Miss Hewett: other accessories were given by Mrs. Shepherd-Cross and her eldest son, Aubrey Shepherd-Cross: the chancel is now separated from the nave by a low screen of carved oak, with open tracery: the pulpit on the north side of the chancel arch is a new work of oak on a stone base replacing the old one mentioned above and cost £30; the brass eagle lectern was the gift of Frederick C. Swindell esq. and the font of Caen stone, richly carved, with an inscription, was given, together with a brass ewer, by Mrs. Shepherd-Cross; the old font, unfortunately damaged, was reconstructed, and now stands outside the church on the south side of the tower: the organ, purchased at an expense of £170, in place of the former instrument, given to the church in 1845 by Miss Nixon, sister-in-law of the Rev. F. H. Stoddart Say. vicar, 1846-78, is placed in a chamber formed on the north side of the chancel: the tower arch is now partially filled by an oak screen, elaborately carved and ornamented with the arms and crests of the Shepherd-Cross family, whose stall seats immediately in front of it replace the western gallery which belonged to the manor of Hamels: the upper part of the screen, which encloses the ringing chamber on this side, is pierced by glazed windows: the rood loft stairs remain, and in the chancel is a low-side or leper window, which has been filled in with stained glass by Mrs. Shepherd-Cross; the cost of this restoration, to which H. Shepherd-Cross esq. contributed £1,000, amounted to £2,230, and the total sum spent on the church since 1838 has been about £3,700: the churchyard was enlarged in 1881 by the addition of an acre of ground adjoining it on the north side, given for this purpose by C. P. Villiers esq, M.P. of Richmond, Surrey, and H. H. Gladwin esq. J.P. of Broughton Castle, Banbury, Miss Mellish's representatives, and consecrated 16 Aug. in the same year. The register of baptisms dates from 1563; marriages and burials, 1565. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £290, including 233 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of Mrs. Gouldburn, and held since 1878 by the Rev. Philip Gordon Ward B. A. of Oriel College, Oxford. Two former vicars, Thomas Percy (1511-12) and Nicholas Hancock (1541-5), were priors of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, London.
Kelly's Directory for Hertfordshire, 1890
Page created December 2008
