Place: Little Hormead: ! home (Hertfordshire Genealogy)

An ancient parish which has been amalgamated with Great Hormead

Hormead (3 miles N.) comprises Great and Little Hormead and Hare Street on the River Quin. In this parish are a number of picturesque houses and two old windmills. Great Hormead church is a restored 15th century edifice. The church of Little Hormead retains a considerable amount of Norman work including a very fine doorway.

Braughing Rural District Official Guide 1971

St Mary the Virgin is now maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust. It is described as a small, rural and homely piece of living history, with an 11th century nave and a 13th century chancel, divided by a grand Norman chancel arch. One of the two Norman doorways has its original door (now preserved inside). This is a rare and precious survival, with wonderful craftsmanship in wood and ironwork. Amongst the wealth of interest here is an exquisitely carved 14th century font and an unusual set of Charles II Royal Arms, of 1660. Ancient timbers survive in the roofs and support a later bell turret, containing two bells which may well have rung out over this beautiful area of agricultural north-east Hertfordshire for 600 years.

The picture from A Pilgrimage in Hertfordshire was published in 1931, when "the now disused church ,,, at the time of my visit was going derelict. ... the Norman doorway ... has been rough boarded, the door having been removed to Great Hormead Church."

Norman Doorway
From A Pilgrimage in Hertfordshire

For more on the church and door see The Hormeads in 1901

"We are staying here for 3 weeks & are feeling the benefit of the change was so much needed. This is a lovely spot in the heart of the Country & very quiet. Up to the present we have been able to spend the greater part of the day out of doors & hope that the rain we are having now may not continue. Love from us both. E.A.B."

Posted Great Hormead, Buntingford, 29th August 1919.

The Convent, Little Hormead, Herts

The 1917 Kelly's Directory for Hertfordshire shows that Sister Mary Teresa was Lady Superior of the Convent of the Sisters of St Mary, Little Hormead.

There were also two private residents in the village - William Charles Kitchen and the Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Arthur Napier Morgan - and four farmers - John Cock, farm bailiff to William Thomas Patten esq.; John S. How of Mutfords; William Thomas Rayment Pattern of Little Hprmeadbury & Hare Farm; and William John Stephens of Stonebury, who was farm bailiff to Joseph Read Russell esq.