How Typical of Medieval Churches is St. Marys Church?

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How Typical of Medieval Churches is St. Mary’s Church?

St. Mary’s church, once known as St. Andrews has been disputed as being an atypical church for the medieval period. This is what I shall be investigating using primary and secondary sources. St. Mary’s has suffered many disasters both natural and man-made. These range from earthquakes to fires. When the new church was built in 1305 it gained vast amounts of money from rich merchants in the wool trade. They patronised the church leaving large sums of money, with this they used the money how they saw necessary to expand the church, its popularity, and make people look at it and feel intimidated.

St. Mary’s Church was one that had significant importance to the people of Hitchin, and pilgrims from across the country. It was open for all classes; however there was a rood screen to divide rich and poor. When parishioners visit the church they can see how wealthy it is and feel overcome thinking back to there own homes, and work places. During the15th century three private chapels were built that doubled the size of the church, they were built using the money from three rich families who were all church people of St. Marys. Many more modifications were made to the church during this time using the money left from rich merchants in the wool trade, and rich families who spent a lot of there time in the church worshipping.

The Font at St. Marys is just one of its many features. It’s made of stone as shown in the picture to the right; Fonts can be made from other materials such as marble, or wood. This font has been engraved with the twelve decipals that go all around the font however upon closer inspection there faces have been hacked off. This occurred in the 16th century when Oliver Cromwell came to power due to his dislike of strong images being visible. This was very typical and happened in many churches across England during his reign. The Font in St. Marys is situated in the nave, in front of the south porch now used
as the main entrance.  This positioning symbolizes the newly
baptised reception into the church; it holds holy water for
baptism and for the church people. This Particular font was
described as, “a richly carved twelve sided font, with defaced
figures of saints”
 There are other fonts that are carved with
an extreme amount of detail and precision, one of these is
the font at St. Mary’s church in Ware. It has a similar hexagonal
shape and size but is decorated differently with its carvings on
the outside of it, shown in the picture to the right.

St. Mary’s church has many medieval stained glass windows throughout. Stained glass windows are very traditional in parish churches. These windows were used to tell story’s for the people who couldn’t read or write that belonged to St. Mary’s.  They also served the purpose of simply letting in light; “The Interior is ablaze with light” This quote shows the amount of light that is let into the church.  There is a window above the chancel arch that is unusual and atypical; it’s believed to just be there to serve the purpose of letting in light. The three large windows on the eastern side of St. Mary’s are five panelled as shown in the picture above from the outside, these three windows let a large majority of the churches light. The photo on the right shows just how detailed these windows are, every window in the church large or small is very ornately decorated showing just how wealthy St. Marys was at the time. This extensive range of detailed glasswork makes the typical stained glass windows slightly atypical.
However Hillesden church in Buckinghamshire also boasts magnificent windows “A treasure, is the magnificent window in the east wall of the south transept, illustrating eight scenes of the life of St. Nicholas”
 Fairford Church is a very well known boasting some extraordinary windows. “Fairford church is famous over the world for having the most complete set of medieval stained glass windows in any parish church in the United Kingdom” This shows that St. Mary’s Church isn’t alone in its greatly designed and decorated windows, therefore they are a typical feature of medieval churches.

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St. Mary’s like all other churches in the medieval times had a rood screen built that served the purpose of separating the upper class from the lower class. St. Mary’s was a large wooden one that was built between the nave and the chancel. The rich who contributed to the church were permitted to sit in the private chapels, where the poor were restricted to the nave while being watch from the priest. The picture to the right shows where the rood screen would have been placed as though you were looking towards the chancel. St. Mary’s rood screen was ...

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