St Botolph's Church, Shenley

St Botolph's Church is a former Church of England parish church at Shenleybury, about a mile north of the village of Shenley in Hertfordshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building, designated on 25 February 1952, and is the surviving fragment of a larger medieval church whose chancel and tower were pulled down in 1753. The church was later declared redundant and converted into a private house. Its churchyard is the burial place of the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor.

History

A church is recorded on the site from the medieval period. The present building appears to have been substantially rebuilt around 1424, following a bequest to the fabric by Maud, Countess of Salisbury. The medieval church consisted of a chancel, a four-bay nave with a south aisle, and a west tower.

In 1753, the chancel and tower were demolished and the nave arcade and roof destroyed, leaving what had been the nave and south aisle as a single rectangular space under a new roof; the date 1753 is recorded in flushwork on the west gable. The Historic England list entry records that the south-west tower — evidently a smaller replacement structure erected after 1753 — was itself demolished in 1925.

Architecture

The church is built of squared knapped flintwork of high quality, with brick and stone dressings and tiled roofs, and is rectangular in plan, some externally. The surviving windows are of two cinquefoiled lights under two-centred arched heads, with hood moulds and diamond-leaded panes, set between two-stage buttresses with brick quoins. The original tower's south door, a plank door with strap hinges under a double hollow-chamfered pointed surround, survives in the west bay; nearby is a stone sundial dated 1741 and inscribed "Tempus fugit".

Fittings recorded in the church include benches with old poppyheads, the remains of a Georgian gallery on Tuscan columns, and a stained-glass window of 1907 in the north wall. Communion plate included a chalice, flagon and paten given by Mrs Catherine Heywood in 1798 but bearing earlier hallmarks of 1773–75. Following the church's closure, this window and other glass, together with a set of royal arms of George III and monumental brasses, were transferred to the "new" parish church of St Martin's Church in Shenley village, built in 1841 by S. Staples for the Rev. Thomas Newcome; the transferred window is recorded there as the work of Morris & Co., 1907, confirming its manufacturer.

Monuments

The most substantial surviving monument is a marble and alabaster wall monument, on the north wall near the west end, to Sir Jeremiah (Jeremy) Snow, Baronet, of Salisbury Hall, the goldsmith-banker whose baronetcy became extinct on his death. Floor slabs recording other members of the Snow family also survive, including Robert Snow, a nephew of Sir Jeremiah (died 1684), and Rebecca Palmer (died 1694). A wall tablet commemorates the Rev. Philip Falle, historian of Jersey, who was rector of the parish until his death in 1742.

Churchyard

Although the church itself was deconsecrated and converted to residential use, much of its former churchyard continues in use as a burial ground, maintained by Hertsmere Borough Council as Shenleybury Cemetery.

Nicholas Hawksmoor

The architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren who also worked with Sir John Vanbrugh at Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, and who designed six London churches, lived at nearby Porters. He died at his house in Millbank, Westminster, in 1736 and was buried at Shenley. His tomb, a simple raised brick and stone slab about 20 metres east of the church, is separately listed at Grade II; its inscription, cut by the mason Andrews Jelfe, reads "P.M.S.L. Hic Jacet Nicholaus Hawksmoor Arm[iger], Architectus, Obijt vicesimo quinto die ... Anno Domini 1736, Aetatis 75."

Other burials

The racing driver Graham Hill, twice Formula One world champion, who lived nearby at Lyndhurst, Green Street, is buried in the churchyard following his death in an aircraft accident in 1975. The churchyard also contains a number of Commonwealth War Graves Commission burials from the two World Wars.