SESSION 1893-94. xxiii 



Field Meetixg, 28xu Apkil, 1894. 

 AYOT ST. TETER AND AYOT ST. LAWREXCE. 



Although Ayot Station has frequently been the trysting-placc 

 for a field meeting of the Society, this is the first time that the 

 walk has been in the direction of Ayot St. Lawrence, past the 

 churches — the new and the old — of Ayot St. Peter. At each of 

 the Ayots there is a portion of an old church standing at some 

 distance fi'om the one now used, but while at Ayot St. Peter an 

 elegant building has replaced an ugly one, at Ayot St. Lawrence 

 a beautiful jSTorman church has been discarded in favour of a 

 hideous Grecian temple. 



Ayot St. Peter is also known as Little Ayot; it contains 1097 

 acres; while Ayot St. Lawrence, or Great Ayot, contains only 

 737 acres, and its population, like its acreage, is two-thirds that of 

 its "Little" neighbour. Salmon says that in Domesday Book the 

 name was written Eia ; Chauncy says Eye. Salmon derives the 

 name from " Ayest, or Desert, a wild, uncultivated place " ; Chauncy 

 from Eye or " Ea, which," he says, " signifies a watry place." 



The members were met at the station by the Rev. H. Jephson, 

 Rector of Ayot St. Peter, who first conducted them tlu'ough the 

 picturesque grounds of The Fryth, the residence of Mr. C. W. 

 AYilsherc, where the Alpine rock-garden attracted much attention, 

 many rare and beautiful Alpine plants being in bloom. The new 

 church of Ayot St. Peter, which owes its existence mainly to 

 Mr. Jephson's exertions, and the schoolrooms, were then visited, 

 and amongst other interesting objects the register, dating from the 

 year 1G86, was examined, wherein was seen an account of the 

 great flood of "1795. FebJ". Sunday ye 8tii." This account is 

 transcribed by Cussans in his ' History of Hertfordshire ' (Broad- 

 water Hundred, p. 250). 



A visit was then paid to the Rectory, where, quite unexpectedly, 

 the members were invited to partake of tea and other refreshments. 



The portion of the old church still standing, now used as a 

 mortuary chapel, was next examined. This is at least the third 

 church built upon the same spot, half a mile from the new church. 

 Ayot St. Peter was a Rectory as early as the twelfth century, but 

 no record exists of the building of the first church. Chauncy, in 

 1700 ('Hist. Antiq. Herts,' p. 321), speaks of the church as 

 " situated on a dry hill, not far from the River Lea and the 

 IVIimeram"; and Clutterbuck, in 1821 ('Hist. Herts,' vol. ii, 

 p. 265), says that this old church was rebuilt, with the rectory- 

 house, " by Ralph Freeman, who was instituted to the rectory 

 in the year 1732." This church, when Clutterbuck wrote, was 

 "a small octagonal building of brick," Avith a belfry, separate 

 therefrom, " also of brick, forming an entrance into the church- 

 yard on the south." Cussans ('Hist. Herts,' Broadwater, p. 245) 

 speaks of this building as having the aspect of a " lock-up," and 

 says that in 1862 it " gave place to another which even surpassed 

 it in some of its objectionable features." On the 10th of July, 



