Church Of St Mary Little Hormead

TL 3929 HORMEAD LITTLE HORMEAD (South side)

12/124 Church of St. Mary 22.2.67 Little Hormead

GV I

Parish church. C11/C12 nave, mid C12 N door, square ended chancel rebuilt in early C13, C18 brick S porch. Restored in 1888 when E end wall rebuilt and C15 bell turret over W end reconstructed. Flint rubble with stone dressings, good cubic ashlar diagonally dressed inside in N side of E wall of nave. Red brick S porch. Timber bell turret with pyramidial roof. Old red tile roofs with overhanging eaves. A small unaisled church with tall narrow Romanesque nave and lower chancel on a slightly different axis. The Chancel has a triple lancet E window c.1888, C15 piscina at SE corner, 2 C13 lancet windows in S wall the W more deeply splayed inside, a priest's door between inserted C.1888, and at W end of S wall a large C15 window of cinquefoiled lights under a square head. 2 bay C16 open timber roof with cambered tie-beam, collar trusses, and butt-purlins with arched windbraces. Roof shortened by rebuilding of E wall a little further W in 1888. Small rectangular Nave almost entirely Romanesque with narrow C11 door, timber roof of late C11, elaborate mid C12 N doorway and celebrated contemporary door with decorative ironwork decoration, small round headed N window with deep internal splay, and wide C12 chancel arch with depressed round arch, roll moulding, and nook shafts with scalloped caps. S window C15 like that in S wall of chancel, 2-light W window c.1888 in perp style with quatrefoil oculus in gable over. Font octagonal early C14 with panels of blank tracery around bowl. Small carved and painted royal arms 1660 above chancel arch. Bell turret carried on twin queen-strut trusses with wallposts and braces off corbels. The S doorway has a round head, chamfered plain imposts, scratch dial and C17 graffiti on exterior with a stoup on E side of door. The N doorway externally has a round arch with roll moulding, plain tympanium and nook shafts with cushion capitals. Now blocked with door displayed inside. C12 ironwork of outstanding importance with 2 large figures of interlaced arcs within square borders with surrounding scrolls in side panels, surmounted by a serpentine dragon. Plastered ceiling under collars conceals single-framed timber roof c.1190, coupled rafters widely spaced with angled struts above the collars, small collar to each apex and lapped dovetail joints. Ashlars hidden by plaster but sole pieces join rafter ends externally by side lap joint. Deep hollow worked on underside of each rafter end with large roll moulding at its centre (Herts Archaeology 3 (1973)126-7). (RCHM (1911)147: VCH (1914)76-7: Pevsner (1977)241-2).

Listing NGR: TL3984929104