Datchworth Dawdle #41
The church of ST. ANDREW is a small building of chancel with north vestry and organ chamber, nave with south porch, and west tower with spire. The simple plan of nave and chancel has probably remained unaltered from an early date, but a drastic restoration in 1840 has removed nearly all traces of antiquity from the building. It is entirely faced with Roman cement, the walls being built of flint rubble, and the roofs of nave and chancel covered with red tiles. Smith of Woodhall. Or a cheveron couple-closed sable between three demi-griffons sable, the two in the chief facing each other. ¶ The chancel has an east window of three lights with net tracery in Roman cement, and two square-headed south windows, each of two cinquefoiled lights, which retain for the most part their late fifteenth-century Totternhoe stonework. On the north side are no windows, the whole space being covered by the modern vestry and organ chamber, and there is no chancel arch, its place being taken by a modern truss. In the south wall near the east end is a trefoiled piscina which seems to be of the fourteenth century, the bowl being level with the floor, which was considerably raised in both nave and chancel about 1840 The nave is lighted by two two-light windows on each side, only the eastern window on the north side showing any old masonry. The rest are in Roman cement, of two cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head. The south doorway and porch have nothing ancient to show, with four-centred arches worked in cement like the rest. The west tower was entirely built in 1840, and is of two short stages with angle buttresses and plain square-headed windows, and a west doorway now blocked up. It is finished with a battlement, in which are luffered openings serving as belfry windows, and from it rises a short ribbed spire, in cement like the rest, and ending in a point without any finial. On the tower are lozenge-shaped dials for a clock. The ground story of the tower is occupied by a modern font, and the only access to the upper part is from outside by a ladder through one of the upper windows. None of the fittings of the church are ancient, but some of the roof-timbers of the chancel are old, though hidden internally by a plaster ceiling, as are those of the nave. On the north wall of the chancel is a good white marble monument to George Viscount Grandison, 1699, with scroll work and heraldry, and on the south wall another to the Rev. Edward Bourchier, 1775. The tower stands over an ancient well, which is locally said to have been a holy well; it is now covered over, but the font drains into it. There are two bells, (fn. 23) one of 1757, without further inscription, and the second a late fourteenth-century London bell, by William Founder, whose surname was probably Dawe, inscribed: 'Cristus Perpetue Det Nobis Gaudia Vite.' The plate consists of a communion cup of 1562, with an engraved band of hyphens at the lip and base of the bowl, a cover paten of 1617, and a flagon and bread-holder of 1714, with the Grandison arms. The first book of parish registers begins in 1559, (fn. 24) and contains the baptisms to 1723, the marriages to 1716, and the burials to 1730. The second book contains baptisms and burials from 1731, the third the same from 1770; the fourth marriages from 1755, and the fifth the same from 1813. The three books now in use contain respectively the baptisms from 1813, the marriages from 1838, and the burials from 1813. There is a book of parish accounts, beginning in 1826. ADVOWSON ¶ The patronage of the church of St. Andrew in the parish of Bramfield belonged to St. Albans Abbey and was part of the grant of Henry VIII to Robert Dacres with the manor, and they were held together from that time till 1740. (fn. 25) In 1775 Edward Bourchier was patron and in 1786. (fn. 26) John Calvert and James Forkington presented jointly. The present patron is Mr. Abel Henry Smith, who is also lord of the manor A 1908 entry about the Church If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please look here http://churchmicro.co.uk/ There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html Far corner of car park
Due to being a micro or smaller, please bring a pen and tweezers, you might need them.
Happy hunting everyone!