Description

Great Munden
TL 3524 GREAT MUNDEN WOOD END ROAD
(north side)

11/7 Parish Church of
St Nicholas
24.1.67 (C of E)
(Formerly listed under rural district
GV of Ware)
II*

Parish church. Early C12 nave and chancel, mid C14 S aisle, late
C15 W tower and chancel arch. Restoration 1865-6 by George and
Henry Godwin renewed arcade. S porch 1874 (replacing C16 brick
porch shown in 1832 drawing by J C Buckler) repaired 1929. Flint
rubble with flint facing and stone dressings. Pudding stone base
course to tower. Steep old red tile roof to chancel and timber S
porch. Low-pitched nave roof now slated. Copper roof to S aisle
and small spire. Original C12 features include round arched N
door (blocked) with external colonettes, cushion capitals and
bowtel moulded arch; N jamb of chancel arch with round shafts to
each angle,volute capital with grotesque face, and chamfered
impost surviving in chancel; and small round-headed N window in
chancel with deep internal splays. A Norman arch is said to be
covered over in N side of chancel. Wide S aisle c1350, probably
built as a burial place by the de Boys family, has a 3-bay arcade
with octagonal piers (restored), fine Dec windows to E (3-light)
and W (2-light), 2 wide ogee headed tomb-recesses and a piscina
in the S wall, an early C15 panelled stone reredos with ogee
headed niches and embattled moulding, 2 3-light windows in the S
wall (restored) and S door with 2 moulded orders. The nave has a
C14 doorway into the W tower, a C15 image niche on the N wall
crocketted and finialled with traces of painting, 3 C15 3-light N
windows each with a different head, and a late C15 4-centred
depressed chancel arch widened to S. 3-bay C15 queen-post open
roof to nave with braces to purlins and principals, moulded wall-
posts on carved stone musical angel corbels and curved braces
with pierced quatrefoil spandrels. Similar spandrels and wall
posts to 3-bay S aisle roof with moulded purlins and stone
corbels. C19 boarded waggon roof to chancel. E window C19, C14
S doorway and C15 2-light window. Unbuttressed, 3-stage, W tower
with enbattled parapet and small set-back spire with vane.
Narrow windows in 2 lower stages repaired with tile slips by SPAB
technique. A string course marks each stage. Wide pointed bell-
chamber openings. Fittings include an hexagonal Jacobean oak
pulpit said to have been a bequest of Sir Robert Cecil, early C16
chancel stalls with carved ends and initials 'RK' for rector
Robert King (1510-1538), and octagonal font c1891 carved with
floral panels and on an octagonal rose marble shaft with moulded
stone base. 2 monuments on S wall of aisle to Sarah and Gratiana
Spence 1753 and 1776 in the form of bellied cartouches with
hatchment carved at top. (RCHM (1911) 104: VCH (1912) 128-29:
Pevsner (1977) 153: H C Andrews History of the Church of St
Nicholas, Much Munden (n.d.) pamplet available at church).

Listing NGR: TL3551924185

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17553690

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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