Church Of St Mary And St John

The Church of St Mary and St John is a parish church of 13th- and 14th-century origin, extensively restored in 1845 and 1890, when it was virtually rebuilt. It is constructed of flint with sandstone dressings and has a clay-tiled roof with pierced and fretted ridge tiles. The west tower is crowned with a copper-covered setback spire characteristic of the Hertfordshire spike tradition.

The church comprises a nave, north aisle, west tower and spire. The west tower rises in three stages with diagonal buttresses set off at intervals and an embattled parapet. The west doorway is in 15th-century style with 19th-century oak plank doors. Its arch features ogee, band and cavetto mouldings to the jambs and intrados, with cusped quatrefoils in the spandrels and a dripmould terminating in angel bosses. Above the doorway is a two-light window with restored 15th-century roll mouldings, irregular quatrefoil heads, a central cusped quatrefoil, and a dripmould. The belfry stage has two-light louvred openings in 14th-century style with cusped trefoil heads and a roundel.

The south porch has a gabled parapeted roof and a 14th-century-style doorway with chamfer and double ogee mouldings, a dripmould with undercut moulding and foliated bosses. Above the doorway is a niche containing a statue of the Virgin Mary beneath a gabled parapeted roof.

The nave presents two bays externally with a flint buttress incorporating stone quoins. It contains restored 15th-century two-light windows: the left-hand example has elliptical inner heads, the right cusped quatrefoils, both beneath flat moulded dripsmoulds. The south vestry projects from the nave and dates from the 19th century, with a pinnacle at the left and a three-light window featuring ogee heads and cusped quatrefoils under a segmental arch.

The chancel roof continues from the nave at the same height. The external stonework of the 13th-century structure was renewed in 1890. The south wall has a single lancet window with long-and-short quoins. The parapeted east end features a cross finial and long-and-short quoins, with the east window restored in 13th-century style. The chancel, built in 1891, has a separate parapeted roof with twin octagonal pinnacles and twin projecting canted bay windows containing single lancets with double cavetto mouldings. The right-hand pinnacle, positioned above a buttress, marks the division between the chapel and the north aisle. The north aisle extends for three bays subdivided by buttresses and contains three two-light windows: two with segmental pointed heads in 15th-century stonework, while the window at the right has a flat head and more modern renewal. The north aisle has a separate gabled roof from the nave, with a diagonal buttress and parapet gable on the west side, and a three-light window with ogee heads and a segmental arch.

The interior was much altered during the restorations of 1845 and 1890. The door from the south porch has a 14th-century-style moulded surround with a dripmould bearing carved ball florets. The four-bay nave features deep reveals to the 15th-century windows in the south wall. The north arcade has octagonal columns with moulded bases and undercut moulded capitals supporting double-chamfered arches.

The 19th-century nave roof was constructed of oak from the Panshanger estate. It is an arch-braced structure with short hammer beams supported on moulded corbels. Moulded arch braces support high collars with embattled tops. There are two stages of moulded purlins, with common rafters exposed below the ceiling.

The tall 15th-century tower arch has attached octagonal columns with moulded bases, capitals and an elliptical arch, with a moulded outer surround. The north aisle of four bays has cavetto mouldings around the window openings in restored 15th-century style, and an arch-braced roof with short hammer beams. The 19th-century chancel arch has an outer moulded band, a chamfered arch and a moulded inner arch carried on moulded capitals and columns.

The 13th-century chancel of four irregular bays was restored and altered in 1890. The south wall has a large arched opening to the organ chamber and vestry, and a south window set in a wide chamfered reveal with a moulded clunch inner head featuring undercut ogee roll and chamfers. The east window, in 13th-century style, comprises triple lancets with engaged colonnettes between them, featuring undercut bell capitals and bases with undercut roll ogee moulding. The north wall has a single lancet in a wide chamfered reveal.

Two openings on the north side lead to the Cowper Chapel through 19th-century heavily moulded arches resting on clusters of three shafts with moulded bases and roll and bell capitals. The chancel has an arch-braced roof with short hammer beams and a wagon roof above. The slightly different profile of the two short bays at the east end suggests the possible remnant of a medieval roof beneath.

The church contains numerous notable fittings. The 19th-century raised altar area is enclosed by altar rails in pink and red veined translucent marble, comprising four panels with an elaborate pattern of moulded quatrefoils separated by attached colonnettes and a moulded top rail. The reredos is of red and pink veined marble, with a central arched niche for a cross, three niches either side with colonnettes and ogee trefoil heads, and an elaborate fretted, pierced and carved top. Below the north window is a two-seat sedilia in pink and white veined marble in 14th-century decorated style with ogee heads and carved flowers and fleur-de-lys. The original sedilia was rebuilt in the churchyard south of the porch. Below the south window is a piscina with a two-light surround in 19th-century 13th-century style featuring heavily undercut mouldings but incorporating medieval heads in the dripmould, two inner trefoil heads and a blank moulded recessed roundel between.

The nave pulpit is of green and pink alabaster with an elaborate Gothic frontal featuring ogee heads and shields. The lectern takes the form of an alabaster angel with a book rest supported on wings. The font has an elaborately carved alabaster bowl on an octagonal column with four carved lions sejant. The pews have bench ends in Rococo style, carved in 1893 by Joseph Mayr of Oberammergau, featuring fruit swags, rope, shell and scroll motifs, carved panelled frontals with moulded surrounds. The craftsman's name is recorded on a plaque on the first pew.

The Cowper Chapel, built between 1890 and 1894 over the family vault in 13th-century style, is divided into two bays by heavy moulded clustered shafts and moulded arches supporting quadripartite ribbed vaults. On the outer wall are two single-light lancets in deep chamfered reveals. The chapel is separated from the chancel and north aisle by an elaborate wrought-iron screen with gates featuring acanthus scrollwork, modelled shields and armorial bearings. The date '1891' appears on the overthrow above the north aisle gate, which is also flanked by attached candlesticks.

The principal memorial is to Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, who died in 1905. This comprises a life-size recumbent effigy with a shield at his feet on a panelled Italianate-style tomb with carvings, mouldings and shields, created by Henry Poole in 1909. On the east wall is a monument to William, second Earl Cowper, who died in 1764, in white, black, pink and yellow veined marble. It has a breakfront black marble base with panels carved with swags of fruit and flowers and a moulded cornice. A life-sized angel points to a weeping putto holding an elliptical shield with a relief head-and-shoulders portrait of the deceased earl. The angel's left hand points to a cluster of putti heads surrounding a sunburst high up on the pink marble obelisk. Spencer Cowper, who died in 1727 and was a judge of the pleas, is commemorated by a memorial in a window embrasure on the north wall. This comprises a black marble cartouche with inscription above a scrolled and pedimented surround in black marble featuring a relief of Cowper in judge's robes seated between the figures of Wisdom and Justice, made in 1752 by Roubiliac. Lady Desborough, who lived from 1867 to 1952, is commemorated by a cartouche with stylised surround by Lawrence Whistler.

In the chancel on the south wall is a 14th-century-style recessed monument to Henry Cowper of Tewin, who died in 1890 and was Clerk to the Church. It features colonnettes with stiff-leaf capitals, a cusped arch with dog-tooth ornament, and a dripmould with ball flowers. Black marble incised slabs with modelled armorial bearings commemorate Robert Mynne, who died in 1656; Helen Mynne, who died in 1659; Walter Wallinger, who died in 1709; Elizabeth Hughes, who died in 1714; and Jane Cowper, who died in 1771.

In the nave on the south wall above the pulpit is a Renaissance-style marble armorial plaque painted in polychrome to Sir Christopher Vernon of Haddon, Derbyshire, an official of the exchequer. Sir Gore Ousley, who lived from 1770 to 1844 and was Ambassador to the Shah of Persia, is commemorated by a black marble surround framing a white monument with Persian urns and ornament. Mary, wife of Thomas Urmston, who died in 1714, has an elliptical veined marble wall plaque surmounted by armorial bearings, putti heads and a skull with batswing 'Memento Mori' at the foot.

In the tower on the south side is an altar tomb of Sir William Harrington, who died in 1637, and his wife, together with their daughter. This comprises a black marble slab with two recumbent marble figures and an effigy of their daughter kneeling in prayer, attributed to Epiphanius of Evesham. Sir William was Member of Parliament for Hertford. On the north wall is a monument to Anne, wife of George Calvert, who was Secretary to Robert Cecil of Hatfield House. It comprises a black slab with an alabaster recumbent draped figure resting on cushions with a mural cornice supporting three shields with armorial bearings and richly moulded swags of fruit. Brasses on the north wall commemorate Thomas Ellis, who died in 1608, and his wife, who died in 1612 and lived at Armores, and one from the 13th or 14th century to Phelipe and Isabel, children of Robert de Louth, with an inscription in Norman French.

An earlier church preceded the present building, which was constructed before 1400 and is possibly connected with John of Gaunt, who is said to have added to The Glebe during his tenure of Hertford Castle from 1360 onwards. The church is still held by the Duchy of Lancaster. The church was restored in 1845 and virtually reconstructed by Earl Cowper in 1890 to 1891, the work carried out mainly by the Panshanger craftsmen. The spire was thickened from the slim spike based on mortice holes found in the timbers of the base. The vestry and Cowper Chapel were added during this work. Two cottages in front of the church were demolished, and a temporary church was built on land at the rear taken in from The Glebe, now incorporated into the churchyard. The churchyard in front of the church was cleared in 1930 and headstones set along the wall. The most important monuments are separately listed.