Parish Church Of St Nicholas

TL 1314 SW HARPENDEN CHURCH GREEN (north side) HARPENDEN

16/37 Parish Church of St Nicholas 26.7.51

II*

Parish Church. C15 W tower. Remainder of church rebuilt in polychrome early-Gothic style by W. Slater in 1862. N aisle added 1898-9 by R. Brown and Sons. E end of church reordered in 1962. The tower, which was restored in 1980, is flint rubble with stone and cement dressings. 3 stages. Large stepped angle buttresses. Octagonal stair turret at SW angle. Crenellated parapet. Lead spike. Moulded cement bands and plinth. W door has deep hollowed surround. 3-light window above with cinquefoil lights. 2-light belfry window with trefoiled lights. Hood moulds. Rest of church is rock-face stone with smooth stone dressings. Flush sandstone bands and polychrome arch heads. Machine tile roof. Simple bar tracery windows in a mid-C12 French style. Aisle windows are 2 lights with quatrefoils; transept ends 3-light; E end with 5 lights and an oculus with 4 quatrefoils. Interior has a 5-bay nave. Drum sandstone piers with moulded bases and leaf-carved capitals. Aisles have broad arches on E and W sides of transepts, each with continuous roll mouldings. Chancel has 2 bays either side, each with a drum pier. At W end of S aisle is a good C12 Purbeck marble font: octagonal with 2 shallow pointed panels on each face; 8 round supporting colonettes. Brasses: 1456 to William Anabull; 1559 to William Cressye, both near pulpit. Good C18 and early-C19 wall monuments on N and S interior walls of tower including (N wall) large monument to Godman Jenkyn (d.1746): obelisk with armorial plaque, sarcophagus base with lobe fluting; black and white marble. C18 monument above with fluted Doric pilasters and broken segmental pediment. S wall has 6 smaller wall plaques. (Pevsner (1977)).

Listing NGR: TL1326514427