Parish Church of St Thomas A Becket is a Grade II* listed building in the Welwyn Hatfield local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 December 1983. A Victorian Church. 1 related planning application.
Parish Church of St Thomas A Becket
- WRENN ID
- kindled-forge-ash
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Welwyn Hatfield
- Constituency
- Hertsmere MP: Sir Oliver Dowden (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 9 December 1983
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Victorian
- Address
- Parish Church of St Thomas A Becket, Northaw Road West, Northaw and Cuffley, EN6 4NW
- OS grid reference
- TL 279 023
- Coordinates
- 51.70498, -0.15012
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Parish Church of St Thomas a Becket is a church built in 1881 by C Kirk and Son of Sleaford, replacing an earlier church from 1809. An aisle was added in 1887, followed by a choir and vestry in 1893. The church is constructed from rock-cut stone and features a slate roof in the Lincolnshire Decorated style. It has a tall southwest tower with five stages, clasp buttresses topped with crocketed finials, and a cusped parapet. The ground floor has three-light windows, and there is a clock on the west face. The belfry has two-light windows. The nave includes a five-light west window with flowing tracery and a door set in a projecting gabled surround. The north nave aisle features five eaves gables above three-light windows, with the porch gable containing a curved triangular traceried window. The east window has five lights with flowing tracery, while the south aisle has smaller two-light windows and an eaves corbel table.
Inside, the church has an exceptionally complete interior with elaborate wall paintings and fittings. The nave is five bays wide, supported by piers with hood moulds over the arches, and features a scissor brace roof. The choir has a similar roof, painted in 1893. There is a two-arch opening to the former vestry on the north side and a chancel chapel on the south, both with arches that have cinguefoiled heads. The sedilia consists of three trefoiled arches, and there is a piscina with a foliage-carved bowl. The chancel arch and rood, designed in the Perpendicular style, were added in 1913. The polygonal stone pulpit has richly crocketed gabled sides and stone figures at the angles. The nave and chancel walls are adorned with wall paintings depicting New Testament scenes and foliage patterns. The church retains its complete original stained glass, including the east window signed by Ward Hughes from 1882, the west window by Ward & Hughes from 1887, and three north aisle windows from around 1895 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne.
Local climate
Parish Church of St Thomas A Becket sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 91% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 90% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 54% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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