Description

TL 1314 SW HARPENDEN CHURCH GREEN (north side) HARPENDEN

16/37 Parish Church of St Nicholas 26.7.51

II*

Parish Church. C15 W tower. Remainder of church rebuilt in polychrome early-Gothic style by W. Slater in 1862. N aisle added 1898-9 by R. Brown and Sons. E end of church reordered in 1962. The tower, which was restored in 1980, is flint rubble with stone and cement dressings. 3 stages. Large stepped angle buttresses. Octagonal stair turret at SW angle. Crenellated parapet. Lead spike. Moulded cement bands and plinth. W door has deep hollowed surround. 3-light window above with cinquefoil lights. 2-light belfry window with trefoiled lights. Hood moulds. Rest of church is rock-face stone with smooth stone dressings. Flush sandstone bands and polychrome arch heads. Machine tile roof. Simple bar tracery windows in a mid-C12 French style. Aisle windows are 2 lights with quatrefoils; transept ends 3-light; E end with 5 lights and an oculus with 4 quatrefoils. Interior has a 5-bay nave. Drum sandstone piers with moulded bases and leaf-carved capitals. Aisles have broad arches on E and W sides of transepts, each with continuous roll mouldings. Chancel has 2 bays either side, each with a drum pier. At W end of S aisle is a good C12 Purbeck marble font: octagonal with 2 shallow pointed panels on each face; 8 round supporting colonettes. Brasses: 1456 to William Anabull; 1559 to William Cressye, both near pulpit. Good C18 and early-C19 wall monuments on N and S interior walls of tower including (N wall) large monument to Godman Jenkyn (d.1746): obelisk with armorial plaque, sarcophagus base with lobe fluting; black and white marble. C18 monument above with fluted Doric pilasters and broken segmental pediment. S wall has 6 smaller wall plaques. (Pevsner (1977)).

Listing NGR: TL1326514427

External Links

• St Nicholas Church, Harpenden at Wikipedia
• St Nicholas Church, Harpenden official website
• Wikidata Q7594950

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover