Holy Rood Church

Holy Rood Church is a Roman Catholic church built between 1889 and 1900 by architect J F Bentley. It is an outstanding example of late Gothic revival architecture, featuring flint and stone in the Hertfordshire Gothic style with Perpendicular elements. The church has a five-bay nave with two-bay wide transepts, a clerestory, low-pitched roofed aisles, and a three-bay chancel. There are upper-level ambulatories and two-bay chapels to the north-east and south-east, with low vestries extending to the east end. A south-west porch is present, and clasped between the transepts and chancel are two octagonal stair turrets topped with copper caps.

The north-west tower, built between 1894 and 1900, features flint at the base, a top band of flint and stone chequer work, and a bell-stage with banded flint and stone and two-light openings. It has panelled battlements and a lead spirelet over the corner stair turret. Stone banding is also used in the gables and on the two octagonal turrets. The transepts have large windows in the Perpendicular style on both the east and west sides.

Inside, the church boasts an elaborate and complete set of fittings by Bentley, which are unmatched in his other works. Notable features include the chancel and east chapels, the west baptistery, and the north aisle chantry chapel dedicated to S T Holland, the donor. The interiors are adorned with painted decorations on the roofs and walls, opus sectile tile panels, and a rich marble and stone altar with a reredos and tabernacle from 1899, along with altar furniture designed by Bentley.

Additional features include a rood beam across the chancel arch, oak sedilia, a painted stone piscina, and an aumbry. The floors are laid with tile and marble. The church also showcases exceptional metalwork, especially in the grilles, screens, altar-rails, and electric light fittings from 1899. The pulpit dates from 1893, and there is a heptagonal marble font with an oak cover. The fittings are particularly rich in the Holland chantry, which includes two canopied shrines with alabaster statues of the Virgin and the Sacred Heart.

Stained glass windows designed by Bentley include the east window from 1899, along with windows in the east chapels and transepts from 1894, and two south aisle windows and two in the chantry. Later notable fittings include the west window from 1904 by Burlison and Grylls and the Stations of the Cross created around 1910 by N H J Westlake.