Patrick Comerford
Saint Mary’s Church, Watford, on the High Street in the town centre, is the oldest building in Watford, and dates back 800 years.
In a posting yesterday (HERE), I looked at some of the tombs and graves in Saint Mary’s churchyard and the legend of the Fig Tree Tomb. But I visited Saint Mary’s last week to find out more about the history and architecture of of the largest churches in Hertfordshire and Watford’s most ancient remaining building.
The earliest parish records begin until 1539, and the church building today dates mainly from 15th century. But the oldest parts of the fabric date from ca 1230, 12th century stonework has been incorporated into the later mediaeval building and the basin of a baptismal font has survived from the 12th century.
Saint Mary’s Church was probably founded in the first half of the 12th century, when a charter was granted for Watford Market to the Abbot of St Albans Abbey as the Lord of the Manor at Cashio. The charter may have been granted during the reign of either Henry I (1100-1135) or Henry II (1154-1189).
However, no part of the existing building dates from earlier than 1230, and it is thought that William of Trumpington, Abbot of St Albans (1230-1235) was the founder.
The church was built in stone and faced in flint, and it has a broad clock tower at the west end that is typical for Hertfordshire, topped with crenelations. The six-bay nave is flanked by north and south aisles lined with octagonal piers, with a clerestory above. The nave has a timber roof with the beams resting on carved angels.
From the outside, Saint Mary’s looks for the most part like a 15th century building. The tower, outer walls of the aisles, clerestory, nave roof and south chancel chapel all date from that period.
The chancel forms the older part of the church, and the chancel arch and the double piscina date from the 13th century.
A chapel dedicated to Saint Katherine was added to the south aisle in the late 14th century. The chapel was built by John Heydon, who died in 1400, of The Grove Estate in Watford, and became known as the Heydon Chapel.
Saint Mary’s was the parish church to the nearby Cassiobury Estate and became the burial place for prominent members of local titled and landed families in Watford. The north chancel chapel, known as the Essex Chapel or the Morison Chapel, has many outstanding monuments and was the burial place of the Earls of Essex and the Morison and Capel families, and their descendants, the Earls of Essex.
The chapel was founded in 1595 by Bridget Hussey (ca 1514/1525-1601), an extraordinary woman who was married three times: Sir Richard Morison (1510-1556) of Cassiobury, who died in Strasbourg; Henry Manners (1526-1563), 2nd Earl of Rutland; and Francis Russell (1527-1585), 2nd Earl of Bedford.
As the Dowager Countess of Rutland and Bedford, she was a prominent social figure and an influential supporter of Puritan causes.
The most striking memorials in the chapel are two large monuments by the sculptor Nicholas Stone, which have been described by the architectural historian Si Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘the chief glory of Watford Church’.
On one side of the chapel is the tomb of Sir Charles Morison (1549-1599), son of the dowager countess. He is shown as a reclining effigy in white marble, with a Van Dyke beard, in armour and with a large Elizabethan ruff round his neck. Morrison is surrounded by an ornate canopy of twin segmental arches supported by two pillars of coloured marble and the family coat of arms. At either end are figures of his son and daughter kneeling in prayer under baldacchinos. A long Latin inscription describes Morison as the founder of the chapel.
On the other side of the chapel is the tomb of his son, Sir Charles Morrison (1587-1628), in a similar style with semi-reclining marble figures of him and his wife Mary. Morrison is seen wearing armour, resting on his elbow, with a skull under his hand, raised above the recumbent figure of his wife; she is reclining on a cushion, wearing a richly embroidered period dress and ruff. The two figures are enclosed in a four-poster canopy and below them at either end are the kneeling figures of a youth, a boy and a young woman kneeling. The Latin inscription says their daughter Elizabeth married Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham in 1627.
A smaller wall monument depicts Dorothy Morrison (died 1618), wife of Sir Charles Morrison the elder, kneeling between two marble pillars. The other memorials in the chapel include monuments to various Earls of Essex and members of their families.
The pulpit dates from 1714 and is the work of by Richard Bull. The church has a number of marble monuments to local townspeople, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. A white marble tablet is to the memory of Robert Clutterbuck, author of the History of Hertfordshire.
The vicars of Saint Mary’s during the 19th century included the Revd the Hon William Robert Capell (1775-1854), a younger son of William Anne Holles Capell (1732-1799), 4th Earl of Essex, and a noted amateur cricketer. He is associated with some versions of the legends associated with the Fig Tree Tomb.
The church interior was restored in 1848, and a major restoration in 1871 was led by the architect John Thomas Christopher (1830-1910). At the time, there were plans too for alterations by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
During Christopher’s refurbishment, the exterior plaster was removed and refaced with knapped flint, battlements were added to the tower, the south aisle walls were rebuilt, new roofs were built, and alterations were made to the 15th century south chapel.
The interior fittings introduced at this time included an ornate stone font carved by James Forsyth and a stone reredos carved by E Renversey, and stained glass windows by Heaton, Butler and Bayne were installed.
The oak pews installed at the time were seen as example of carved ornamentation in the Decorated Gothic style with tracery heads and foliate spandrels. The choir stalls of carved oak date from 1840, with new fronts added in 1925 and one stall head carved by the Revd Richard Lee James in 1871, depicts two of his curates
The memorials that survived the Victorian restorations include a marble tablet in the south wall to Jane Bell, with a long epitaph written by Dr Samuel Johnson, which his biographer Boswell described as ‘a fine eulogium from the outline of her character and Johnson’s knowledge of her worth’.
Two table tombs that originally stood in the middle of the Essex Chapel were moved in 1907 to the Bedford family chapel in Saint Michael’s Church in Chenies, Buckinghamshire, in 1907. The Essex Chapel was restored in 1916 in memory of George Capell (1857-1916), 7th Earl of Essex, by his widow, Adele Capell, Dowager Countess of Essex, an American socialite and heiress.
King Edward VII attended Saint Mary’s when he visited the Earl of Clarendon at the Grove in 1909. He entered the church through the door to the Essex Chapel, which is now known as the Edward VII door.
The organ, installed in 1935, is the work of JW Walker & Sons. It was restored and improved in 1990 and is now regarded one of the finest organs in the country.
Saint Mary’s Church has been a Grade I listed building since 1952.
A new octagonal church hall was built in 1977-1979 on the south side of the church. A further restoration project in 1987 included repairs to the roof and organ.
The latest refurbishment work in 2014-2019 included new flooring, internal plate glass screens, and replacing George Gilbert Scott’s oak pews with modern upholstered chairs. The plans caused controversy with objections from conservationists, heritage bodies including the Victorian Society and Historic England, and Watford Borough Council. However, the scheme was approved by the consistory court, and the nave pews were taken out, with the decorated end panels reused for interior panelling.
Saint Mary’s Church, Watford, is in the Diocese of St Albans. It was announced earlier this month that the Revd Canon Richard Banham, Rector of Wheathampstead, has been appointed Vicar of Saint Mary’s, Watford. Morning Worship on Sundays is at 10:30 am although the style of services has varied during the current vacancy.
