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Thundridge Old Church, Hertfordshire

Location
(51°50′15″N, 0°0′57″W)
Thundridge Old Church
TL 368 173
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Hertfordshire
now Hertfordshire
medieval All Saints and St Mary
  • Ron Baxter
15 June 2018

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Feature Sets
Description

Thundridge is a village 2 miles N of Ware in the valley of the River Rib in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The village was originally sited a mile to the E, and here may be seen the remains of the medieval church of St Mary and All Saints, including its graveyard, and a large medieval moated enclosure associated with Thundridgebury House which was alongside the church. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the church, of which only the W tower still stands, is listed Grade II*.

In 1853 the church was demolished except for the tower, and the stone used in the restoration of Sacombe church some 3 miles to the NW. A new parish church was built in Thundridge village in the same year. What stands on the site of the Old church today is the 15thc W tower, of flint rubble with stone dressings, locked up and with its tower arch blocked, with a 12thc doorway reset in the blocking of the tower arch.

History

Thundridge was held by Alnoth, a man of Archbishop Stigand, before the Conquest, and by Hugh de Grandmesnil from Bishop Odo of Bayeux thereafter. When Odo forfeited his holdings after his arrest in 1082, the Grandmesnils continued to hold as tenants-in-chief from the king. By the 13thc the tenants under the Grandmesnils were the family of Dive of Balderton; William de Dive died before 1251, and John Dive was the lord in 1277 and at his death in 1292-93. The later history of the manor will be found in VCH.

The church was originally a chapel of Ware, and both the mother church and Thundridge chapel were given to the Priory of Ware by Hugh de Grandmesnil

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Comments/Opinions

Free-standing chevron is found in Hertforshore at Ickleford and at Hemel Hempstead.

Bibliography

Historic England Scheduled Monument, English Heritage Legacy ID: 11560

Historic England Listed Building English Heritage Legacy ID: 356028 (Tower only)

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, Harmondsworth 1953, 250.

N. Pevsner and B. Cherry, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, Harmondsworth 1977, 364.

Victoria County History: Hertfordshire vol. 3 (1912), 377-80.