Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Datchworth

This is a parish church with late 12th or early 13th century origins, substantially developed and altered over the following centuries. The building stands on a large moated site which once included the original Bury.

The church consists of a four-bay nave with a north aisle, a smaller two-bay chancel, a west tower, a south porch, and a north vestry. Construction is primarily flint rubble, largely cement rendered, with stone dressings and tiled roofs. The spire is shingled.

The late 13th century saw the addition of the north aisle. The late 14th century brought the addition of the tower. Later medieval work includes the rebuilding of the chancel and the addition of the south porch. Significant alterations occurred in 1824-5. The church was restored, the tower was raised, and a spire was added in 1869-70 by architect A.W. Blomfield. Further restorations followed in 1886 and 1901, during which a vestry and organ bay were added.

The chancel features an east window of three cinquefoiled lights with a square head set within a four-centred arched recess. The south elevation displays a 19th-century plank and muntin priest's door flanked by two unequal square-headed two-light windows. These have four-centred arched lights in deep embrasures. A plinth and dentilled brick eaves run along this elevation.

The taller nave to the south is lit by two cinquefoiled-light square-headed windows flanking the porch. The south porch is gabled with a sawtooth tiled roof. It features an outer chamfered four-centred arch with a blind slit window in a brick-coped gable parapet with kneelers. Blind slit windows appear in the returns. The inner entrance is a neo-Norman arch with shafted jambs, a double round arch, outer chevron moulding, and impost blocks.

The west tower is substantial. Its lower stage has a moulded stone double plinth. The west entrance is blocked by a heavily moulded two-centred arch. Above this sits a three-light window with a pointed arched head and late 19th-century tracery, with a mask-stopped hood mould. Three-stage diagonal buttresses rise up the tower. A string course runs along the upper part of the lower stage, with a clock to the south. A cornice marks the start of the 19th-century belfry, which displays exposed flint with stone quoining and a stone band at the impost level of two cinquefoiled-light openings featuring quatrefoils in two-centred heads. A corbelled cornice supports the tall splay-footed spire, which is fitted with hipped and louvred lucarnes and a weather-vane.

The north aisle is built of exposed flint and stone, with knapped flint to the east. Near its east end is a two-cinquefoiled-light window from the 15th century, set in a deep embrasure with a square hood. Towards the west end is a late 19th-century two-light window with a quatrefoil in a pointed arched head. Later 19th-century brick buttresses with gabled heads were added to the centre and east, while a diagonal three-stage buttress marks the west angle. Similar late 19th-century two-light windows appear on the gable ends of the north aisle. Sprocket eaves finish the roof line.

The gabled vestry to the north of the chancel has a square two-light lattice window with a sham timber-framed gable and slate roof. A lean-to organ bay extends to the west.

Internally, the late 13th-century four-bay arcade from the nave to the north aisle features three octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals, supporting double hollow-chamfered arches with two-centred heads. The responds to the inner order bear detached Purbeck marble shafts with moulded bases and foliate capitals. The late medieval two-centred chancel arch is triple moulded, with responds to the inner order carrying shafts and capitals (the bases are damaged). A tall late 14th-century three-centred tower arch, also triple moulded, features semi-octagonal responds to the inner order with capitals and bases.

The north aisle windows retain moulded medieval rear arches. The nave roof comprises 15th-century arch-braced collar beam trusses with moulded braces and double purlins, decorated with a double row of curved windbraces. The later chancel roof has small moulded arched braces to the collar beams. The north aisle was reroofed in 1886 with timber bracing inserted to support the aisle arcade.

On the inside of the north aisle east wall are three small niches and a bracket. A 15th-century font is present, octagonal in form with stem and bowl. Its sides are trefoiled and panelled with embattled edges, and it has broach stops at the foot. A large oak chest, probably 17th century, features three locks.

The chancel contains late 19th-century Gothic fittings. In the nave south wall is a recess with a restored two-centred arched head. Within is a 14th-century coffin slab bearing a raised floriated cross. The chancel north wall holds a plain marble epitaph with base and cornice to William Hawtayne, died 1747. A similar late 18th-century epitaph appears on the chancel south wall.

An early 19th-century east window depicting three Old Testament scenes was removed from the Church of St. Andrew and St. Mary, Watton at Stone. Elsewhere, late 19th-century glass is installed. Affixed to the outside of the nave south wall is an epitaph to Reverend C.W. Johnson (died 1828), his wife, and Alice Linton (died 1824), the work of W. Hitch, mason of Hertford.