Parish Church Of St Nicholas

The Parish Church of St Nicholas is a Grade II* listed building located in Harpenden. The church features a 15th-century west tower, while the rest of the structure was rebuilt in a polychrome early-Gothic style by W. Slater in 1862. A north aisle was added in 1898-1899 by R. Brown and Sons, and the eastern end of the church was reordered in 1962. The tower, restored in 1980, is constructed of flint rubble with stone and cement dressings, consisting of three stages with large stepped angle buttresses and an octagonal stair turret at the southwest angle. It has a crenellated parapet topped with a lead spike, moulded cement bands, and a plinth. The west door features a deep hollowed surround, with a three-light window above that has cinquefoil lights, and a two-light belfry window with trefoiled lights, both adorned with hood moulds. The remainder of the church is built of rock-face stone with smooth stone dressings, featuring flush sandstone bands and polychrome arch heads, and has a machine tile roof. The windows exhibit simple bar tracery in a mid-12th-century French style, with aisle windows consisting of two lights with quatrefoils, transept ends having three-light windows, and the eastern end featuring a five-light window with an oculus containing four quatrefoils.

Inside, the church has a five-bay nave supported by drum sandstone piers with moulded bases and leaf-carved capitals. The aisles have broad arches on the east and west sides of the transepts, each with continuous roll mouldings. The chancel features two bays on either side, each with a drum pier. At the west end of the south aisle, there is a notable 12th-century Purbeck marble font, which is octagonal with two shallow pointed panels on each face and supported by eight round colonettes. The church also contains brasses commemorating William Anabull from 1456 and William Cressye from 1559, both located near the pulpit. Additionally, there are fine 18th-century and early 19th-century wall monuments on the north and south interior walls of the tower, including a large monument to Godman Jenkyn (died 1746) on the north wall, featuring an obelisk with an armorial plaque and a sarcophagus base with lobe fluting, made of black and white marble. An 18th-century monument above it has fluted Doric pilasters and a broken segmental pediment, while the south wall displays six smaller wall plaques.