Holy Trinity Church is the parish church for the village of

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * ...

in Hertfordshire. The church building stands to the south-east of the village on high ground, and is built of flint and coursed ironstone rubble.Holy Trinity Church on the British History website
/ref> It was Grade I

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

in 1968.Holy Trinity, Weston on the British Listed Buildings website
/ref> In the churchyard is the supposed grave of the giant Jack o'Legs.

History

The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 mentions two priests at Weston but says nothing of a church being there. The

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living ...

of the church was awarded by Gilbert de Clare to the Knights Templar before 1148. This was later confirmed by William Marshall,

Earl of Pembroke Earl of Pembroke is a title in the Peerage of England that was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title, which is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, has been recreated ten times from its origin ...

. The Knights Templars held the advowson until 1309, when their order was suppressed, and it then passed to the

Knights Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

.Holy Trinity Church, Weston - The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland
/ref> In 1481 the inhabitants of Weston complained that their vicar John Hawthorn was 'a common player, and daily played le Penyprykke and Bowles'. He was duly warned to amend his ways under penalty of a fine of 12d. Today the parish comes under the

Diocese of St Albans The Diocese of St Albans forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England and is part of the wider Church of England, in turn part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese is home to more than 1.6 million people and comprises the hi ...

Design and features

The current church was built in the traditional

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

shape in the 12th century, with the south aisle, south porch, clerestory, new windows, and south transept being added in the 15th century. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

was rebuilt to a Neo-Norman design in brick coated with stucco in 1840 by Thomas Smith for the Rev. Benjamin Donne. The church underwent a restoration in 1867 including the addition of the upper stage of the tower, while the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

was added in 1880. The nave is rendered and the tower and north transept are of flint and coursed rubble. The nave roof dates to the 15th century, and rests on original grotesque

corbels In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the st ...

. The font also dates to the 15th century and is octagonal. The sides of the bowl, which is moulded, have quatrefoiled panels, and the stem is also moulded and panelled. The octagonal oak pulpit with open arcading on an octagonal moulded base was moved to the church in 1840 from the Church of St Mary the Less in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, where it is said to have been used by

Jeremy Taylor Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) was a cleric in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of expression, and he is fr ...

. The five bells in the belfry are: the treble by John Waylett (1716); the second and third by Miles Graye (1634); the fourth by Warner & Sons (1867); and the tenor by R. Chandler (1682).

Jack o'Legs

In the churchyard is the supposed grave of Jack o'Legs, who, according to local legend, lived in a cave in a wood at Weston and who stole food from the people of nearby

Baldock Baldock ( ) is a historic market town and unparished area in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire, England, where the River Ivel rises. It lies north of London, southeast of Bedford, and north n ...

. The grave is unusually long and was possibly placed there to fuel belief in the legend.

Gallery

File:Holy Trinity, Weston, Herts - Font - geograph.org.uk - 359714.jpg, The font File:Holy Trinity, Weston, Herts - Corbel - geograph.org.uk - 359716.jpg, A corbel File:Holy Trinity, Weston, Herts - Corbel - geograph.org.uk - 359719.jpg, A corbel

References

*''The Victoria County History: A History of the County of Hertford'', London, 1912, 3:175. * N. Pevsner and B. Cherry, ''The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire'', Harmondsworth, 1953 (1977), 402.

External links

Holy Trinity, Weston
on the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

website
Photographs of Holy Trinity Church - Hertfordshire Churches in Photographs website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holy Trinity Church, Weston

Weston, Hertfordshire Weston is a village and civil parish in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is located around 4 miles north of Stevenage, 2.5 miles south of Baldock and the same distance south-east of Letchworth, although it lies i ...

History of Hertfordshire