Church Of St Lawrence And All Saints

The Church of St. Lawrence and All Saints is a parish church dating to around 1884. It was built using materials salvaged from a demolished earlier church and designed by F. Chancellor. The church is constructed of random septaria, rubble, red and yellow brick, with coloured brick dressings. It has red plain tiled roofs and buttress capping, with terracotta apex finials on the gables. A timber-framed steeple features a hanging tile base, timber sounding louvres, and a shingle spire.

The church comprises a chancel, nave, north vestry, and south porch. Buttresses are present on all angles, with additional buttresses on the north and south walls of the nave and chancel, mirroring the west wall. The east window is of three trefoiled lights with quatrefoils and a cinquefoil above. A foundation stone commemorates Susanna Claughton, wife of the Bishop of St. Albans, laid on 13th August 1883. The south wall of the chancel has a lancet window to the east, and a three-light cusped window with a segmental pointed head to the west. The nave’s south wall features two lancets to the east, a lancet niche between them, two two-light windows with quatrefoils above and two centre arched heads, and a lancet to the west of the south porch. The north wall has two eastern and two western lancets, two two-light windows with tracery (one C14 with a quatrefoil), and two centre arched heads between the central buttresses. The west wall has two trefoiled lancets. All windows have square leaded coloured glass.

The gabled north vestry has a stone chimney stack at the gable apex and a vertically boarded door with two lancets to the north wall. The gabled south porch is timber framed with a plinth matching the walls, and features a C14 moulded two-centre arched doorway with head stops, a vertically boarded door with a timber grill and shutter.

Inside, two C12 head stops are located in the west wall of the vestry. The chancel has a six-way cant ribbed and ceiled roof with foliate bosses and moulded wall plates. A C12 pillar piscina includes a ring soffit, a square drain, and a spirally fluted shaft within a rectangular niche. A segmental head defines the Chancel arch. The Nave has a scissor-braced roof, with principal rafters resting on moulded stone corbels. A timber octagonal pulpit has traceried side panels. Old stained glass is found in the north window. A C15 octagonal font has a moulded soffit, moulded base, octagonal stem, moulded capitals, bases, and rings to four side shafts. The arcade of two bays leads to the bell turret, with moulded capitals and bases, and moulded two-centred arches. A bell dated 1636 was cast by Miles Gray.