St Mary's Church is a

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 Brit ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in Hitchin,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

, England. St Mary's Church is the largest parish church in Hertfordshire, and is remarkably large for a town of the size of Hitchin—this has been cited as evidence of how Hitchin prospered from the wool trade. The present church stands on the site of two previous churches and dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, with its tower dating from around 1190. The church has been Grade I listed since 1951. During the laying of a new floor in the church in 1911, foundations of a more ancient Saxon church building were found. In form, they appear to be a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

n church of a 7th-century type, with a later enlarged

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. ...

and

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...

s, perhaps added in the 10th century. These may have been the remains of a Benedictine monastery said to have been first on the site and to have been founded by Offa, King of

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , y ...

(r. 757–796).

History

In 910 the church and its adjoining palace were burnt down and the monks left Hitchin for St Albans Abbey following which local people used stones from the ruined church to build a new parish church. In 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 manusc ...

of 1086 St Mary's is listed as the most important church in the Deanery of St. Albans. The church was partially destroyed during the 'Great Wind' of 1115 after which the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

had to be completely rebuilt; the church was struck by lightning in 1292 which caused great damage, while in 1298 the centre of the church collapsed as the result of an earthquake. Six years later in 1304, possibly weakened by the earthquake, the roof collapsed damaging monuments and relics inside the building. The church was rebuilt with flint, rubble and stone from

Totternhoe Totternhoe is a village and civil parish in the Manshead hundred of the county of Bedfordshire, England. Overview Totternhoe is an ancient village in southern Bedfordshire, near Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard. Totternhoe Knolls has been a for ...

in 1305.St Mary's Church, Hitchin - ''Domesday Reloaded'
- BBC History website In 1220 the nuns and Bishop Hugh of Lincoln endowed a vicarage at the church. The present church building dates mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries and was originally dedicated to St Andrew, but came to be known as The Church of St Mary due to the powerful and influential Guild of our Lady founded in the 15th century.History of St Mary's, Hitchin - St Mary's Church website
/ref> The south porch, with its original door and described as "the chief glory of the church", was added in about 1450.

Features

Features surviving from the 15th century and of particular note are the

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

, which dates from about 1470 and around the base of which the figures of the Twelve Apostles were damaged by Puritan soldiers during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...

when

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three ...

garrisoned his troops in the church; the pulpit dates from about 1500 and no longer has its canopy, its ‘wine-glass‘ base or its clerk's desk. The Angel Screen is considered one of the finest in the country and on its eastern side can still be found the fraternity stalls used by the Guild of 'Our Blessed Lady St Mary the Virgin'. The

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a f ...

on the south east corner of the ancient tower was erected in thanksgiving for the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. The organ is a three-manual instrument built by J. W. Walker in 1871 and which was inaugurated by

John Stainer Sir John Stainer (6 June 1840 – 31 March 1901) was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today (with the exception of ''The Crucifixion'', still heard at Passiontide in some churches of the Anglican Communi ...

. It has been rebuilt three times since then, most recently in 1958. The organ's carved oak case is by Laurence Arthur Turner and was installed in 1913. Modern features include the altar rail with its trademark mouse carved by

Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, ho ...

Notable events

The funeral services were held here for the conductor

Sir Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the The Proms, Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introd ...

, who died at the nearby Hitchin Hospital, and solicitor and Hitchin historian

Reginald Hine Reginald Leslie Hine (25 September 1883 – 14 April 1949) Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA, Royal Historical Society, FRHS was a solicitor and historian whose writings centred on the market-town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire and its environs ...

. In August 2015 windows at the church and those at St Paul's church in Letchworth were smashed in what police called a "religiously motivated attack." The cost of repair at St Mary's came to £10,000. Christopher Battison, aged 38, from Letchworth, was charged with the attack.'Man charged in connection with criminal damages in Hitchin and Letchworth'
- Hertfordshire Constabulary website - 25 September 2015

Burials

* Bernard I de Balliol

Gallery

File:St Marys Hitchin - Porch.JPG, The South Porch of St Mary's Church File:St Marys Hitchin - Side.JPG, View from the side File:St Marys Hitchin - Tower.jpg, The Tower of St Mary's Church File:Hitchin Church back.JPG, St Mary's church from the River Hiz File:St Marys Hitchin Angel Screen.jpg, The Angel Screen is considered one of the finest in the country

Notes and references

References Bibliography *

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Hitchin Hitchin Hitchin Hitchin Buildings and structures in Hitchin