In the early 16th century the church was a plain rectangular building with a wooden tower and shingled spire, and at that time the South Aisle was added. This is now the oldest part of the church and the Tudor brickwork can still be seen on the outside. On this wall near a tablet to the memory of Henry Becket (died 1627, aged 91) is a large nail which supported a basket of bread for the poor. The North Aisle was added in 1753 and the brick tower in 1754. In 1833 restorations included the extension of the Chancel by 17 feet. This involved the destruction of the old East end which dated from the latter part of the 14th century. In 1877 the galleries and old pews were removed.
After the consecration of St Albans in 1888 the Church was disused for some thirty odd years. Funds were raised to save it from total decay and it was restored in 1936 and rededicated in 1938. It has since been in regular use every Sunday as a Chapel of Ease to St Albans and, since 1979, as the Parish church.
The greatest benefactor of the Church was undoubtedly the Revd. Stephen Hales, DD, FRS, incumbent from 1709 until his death in 1761 at the age of 84. He was buried under the floor of the tower which he had built. The church was largely rebuilt during his tenure, and he contributed considerable sums of money to the cost.
There are two old floor brasses on the South Aisle wall and the East wall to John Goodyere and Thomasine his wife (died 1506) and to Richard Parsons, Escheator for the County of Somerset (died 1613).
The East window
illustrates the verses of the Benedicite with the Virgin and
Child in the centre. The votary figures are the Revd. Stephen
Hales (from a portrait by Thomas Hudson in the National Gallery),
and Thomas Traherne, BD, Poet and Mystic, author of “Centuries of Meditations”, and chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgeman – his portrayal is imagined. The College Coats of Arms are Corpus Christi, Cambridge (Hales) and Bracenose, Oxford (Traherne). The
view of the church is from an 18th Century print.
The Side Chapel window shows Westminster Abbey, St Benedict, St Nicholas, patron saint of Mariners and Children, and St Mellitas, first Bishop of London. Below are Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of the Exchequer, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Please and Lord Keeper of the Seals to Charles II, and Richard Meux Benson, MA, Priest and Founder of the Anglican Order of the Cowley Fathers. There is also a Medallion to the memory of Peter Edward Burgess. The small windows in the South Aisle and West Window are good examples of the Arts and Crafts style of the 1880s.
