Bayford, three miles south of Hertford, has a population of fewer than five hundred yet has its own railway station and primary school. Until 1867 its church was a chapel of ease (in other words, Bayford wasn't a parish in its own right, but was part of that of Essendon, about four miles to the west). Nevertheless it did have a church in the Middle Ages, on a site somewhere to the north of the current church; this was demolished (probably because it was dilapidated after many years of neglect) in 1803, and in 1804 a new church was built, of yellow brick and very likely utilitarian and unimposing. In 1867, as already mentioned, Bayford became a parish, and soon after the recently elevated parishioners began to feel that their new status deserved a more fitting edifice. Fortunately for them their number included William Robert Baker (1810-96), a scion of the wealthy Baker family who lived in nearby Bayfordbury. Their fortune was founded by Sir William Baker (1705-70), who was a long-serving director (and twice Chairman) of the East India Company, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company and an MP. Although the family's wealth had petered out by the early 20th century, in the later 19th century it was still sufficiently intact for William Robert to be able to spend £2425 on a new church (about £249,000 today, which won't buy you even a one bedroom house in the area now).
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| The church is surrounded by trees except on the north, which makes photography difficult |
Henry Woodyer was the chosen architect (he was also responsible for two other new churches in the county, Langlebury (in Hunton Bridge) (1863-4), and Waterford (1871-2)), possibly because of his High Church leanings. His design, built 1870-1, looks as if it's intended to make the most out of a limited budget (an object it achieves very well). The primary material used is Kentish rag, a cheap but drab, dreary and undignified stone,* only minimally relieved by having quoins, and bands above the plinth and below the eaves, of red brick, and Bath stone dressings. The style is Early English, so the windows are mostly simple (and inexpensive) lancets.
There's no (expensive) tower or spire, but a welcome vertical emphasis is added by the octagonal timber and lead flèche** (which doubles as a belfry).
The west front, with its wheel window and engaged shafts, is rather more showy.
The otherwise stark north and south fronts are enlivened by the roof of the chancel extending further down than that of the nave, and the large dormers with oculi. (The nave roof also has tiny dormers.)
The polygonal apse at the east end also provides visual variety and interest.
But Woodyer reserves most of his resources for the impressively lofty (but dark) interior, especially the chancel. The chancel screen follows the Early English style of the architecture; as far as I know there are no extant large 13th century screens, but if any ever existed this is what they must have looked like. The parclose screens are similar though plainer.
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| Two questions: how often is it so hot in the church that a fan is necessary? And, being placed as high as it is, how effective is it? |
The chancel is one of the best Victorian High Church ensembles in the county (I'd also mention Barley, High Wych and Holwell). The windows, plain lancets seen from outside, are enriched inside by trefoiled heads and engaged shafts. Over the altar the wall and window together form a reredos; the wall has a pair of two blind round arches surmounted by another, with a vesica piscis (or mandorla) between them, a shape rich in Christian symbolism (for example, it's often taken the signify the intersection between the earthly and the spiritual realms), a motif also used in the screen. The window has in its jambs blind arches and more vesicas; higher on the wall are more niche-like blind arches.
What's more, all this (and the ceiling) is lushly painted, with much gold leaf. The decoration was carried out in 1890 by the firm Heaton, Butler and Bayne (best known as manufacturers of stained glass) to designs by Sidney Gambier Parry (1859-1948), who was an architect in his own right. The figures of saints are stolid, but the foliage, especially the vines snaking up the jambs, is excellent.
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| The Agony in the Garden |
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| Annunciation |
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| Nativity |
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| Christ before Pilate |
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| Angels announcing birth of Christ to shepherds |
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| Christ blessing children |
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| Angel with Agnus Dei |
The stained glass makes a valuable contribution too. The windows in the chancel*** (1871), and all those on the south and west, are by Clayton and Bell, a firm which produced much marvellous glass, especially early in their career. (There's a wonderful window by them, from just a year later, in Berkhamstead.) I never tire of promoting them whenever I can. I don't think that the Bayford windows show them at the absolute top of their game, but some of them - the Agony in the Garden above, for example - are good examples of their skill in creating satisfying compositions within a tightly constrained space (though the chancel windows, unlike most of those in the nave, cheat a little by using much clear glass to fill the extremities).
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| Left: Noli Me Tangere; Raising Jairus' Daughter; Right: The Three Maries at the Tomb; Christ Healing the Paralysed (1871) |
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| The Good Ruler; The Faithful Servant (1884) |
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| Four Beatitudes: Left: Blessed are the merciful; ... they who mourn; Right: ... the pure in heart; ... the peacemakers (1874) |
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| Left: Namaan; John the Baptist preaching; the Pool of Bethesda. Right: Baptism of the Eunuch; Baptism; Baptism of the Centurion and his family (1872) |
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| Eight angels (1872) |
The windows on the north of the nave are more recent, not by Clayton and Bell, and not as good.
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| Top left: Zacharias; top right: St John the Evangelist. Below: scenes from The Pilgrim's Progress, by Herbert Bryans (1904) (who trained with Clayton and Bell) |
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| Top left: David; top right: Isaiah; below: Adoration of the Magi, by Herbert Bryans (1901) |
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| Left: St Alban; St Augustine; right: St Amphibalus; St Gregory, by Ninian Comper (1899) |
There are also several objects rescued from the old church.
The font is 15th century, and rather decayed. It has Tudor roses alternating with blind 'windows' on its sides. The font cover is elaborate and most enjoyable; it's very similar to that in Waterford. Presumably both are by Woodyer himself; (Bettley/Pevsner mention neither).
This fine monument is to George Knighton (d.1612); he is armoured and profusely bearded, and his boots are realistically creased as if much worn.
Bayford church is open on Wednesdays, and possibly some other days too.
* See the first footnote here for Alec Clifton-Taylor's opinion on ragstone. ** 'Flèche' means both 'arrow' and 'spire' in French. In English the word is used specifically for needle spires which sit on the ridge of a roof, especially but not necessarily at the junction between the nave and chancel, or where the transepts cross. A needle spire on a flat roof is not called a flèche, but a spirelet (or, in Hertfordshire, where there are numerous examples on towers, a spike). This distinction does not exist in French.
*** I failed to take usable photos of the Crucifixion above the altar, or of the west windows.
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| Monument to William Baker, (d.1824), the grandfather of William Robert Baker who paid for the church, by Sir Francis Chantrey |
