Hatfield Church Online - History of Hatfield Church



	The Domesday Survey of 1086 mentions a church at Hatfield but nothing of that building remains to be seen. The present Parish Church of St. Lawrence was probably begun in the twelfth century. The south and west doors are Norman and so is the lower part of the outer walls of the nave. The Norman pebble construction can be seen quite clearly outside. Three narrow Norman windows survive at the west end but the decorated windows in the south aisle are fourteenth century insertions.

The nave archades, five on each side, are thirteenth century, replacing the original Norman work but the general impression is that of a Perpendicular church. The clerestory, transepts, tower, chancel and north and south chapels are all of that period.

The church is cruciform with a tall, commanding central tower over the crossing, the tower is 100 ft. high and bears, inside and out, the arms of the Savage family, one of whom, Thomas Savage, was Archbishop of York from 1501 to 1507 and his brother became Bailiff of Hatfield in 1485. The family came from Macclesfield and Thomas built the Savage Chapel there.

Numerous mason's marks from the tower and into the east end indicate that all this work was carried out at about the same time in the reign of Henry VII.

After this rebuilding the church was dedicated to St. Mary, whose monogram appears on the screen, but by the middle of the eighteenth century the original name of St. Lawrence had reasserted itself.

The chancel screen is a very fine one. It dates from the end of the fifteenth century, as also does the much smaller one at the enterence to the St Catherine Chapel, which is now used as a vestry.

Galleries were installed in 1697 and removed in 1872 under the supervision of Sir Thomas Jackson who also raised the floor of the ringing chamber to allow the big windows in the lower portion of the tower to light up the crossing. The south porch was rebuilt at the same time and the font was assembled from pieces of various dates.

The sixteenth century armour in the south chapel is probably associated with the founder of the Chancery.

The Parish Registers begin in the reign of Elizabeth I and they record that the plague visited Hatfield in the summer of 1607.

The silver chalice was presented in 1773 by Payler Jackson who lived in the house which is called "The Grange".

The massive iron bound dug-out chest in the north aisle is formed from a single piece of oak. It is of Norman workmanship and originally it had ten locks. The jointed chest next to it might be from the fourteenth century.

The choir stalls were designed by Temple Moore (1856-1920) and the table by his son-in-law, Leslie Moore. The table itself incorporates part of an older seventeenth century table which was much shorter.

The windows in the south aisle are by C. E. Kempe (1837-1907) and his assistant W. E. Tower (1873-1955) and can be identified by the little sheaf of corn, which was their trademark.

All the modern glass in the north aisle, the south chapel and the south transept, the Welch memorial tablet in the south aisle, the lighting pendants and the alter rails in the South Chapel are designs by G. G. Pace of York.

Side Chapel Window

In recent years a pressure air heating system has been installed in the tower and visible heating pipes have been removed.
In the year 2000 The Millennium Window was installed in the north transept.

Plan of Church