HITCHIN HUNDRED 



succeeded by his fifth but eldest surviving sou Hubert 

 Delme Radclifte, J.P. He died in 1878, and his 

 brother Mr. Francis Augustus Delme Radclifte is the 

 present owner of Hitchin Priory. 6 '' 



The present house, which stands on the south side 

 of the town, incorporates part of the old house of 

 White Friars. The original structure appears to have 

 been of flint rubble and clunch, with the priory 

 church on the south. No visible detail, however, is 

 earlier than the 15th century, and the remains are 

 confined to a part of the north, or frater, range of 

 the west range. The house as it stands at present 

 was almost wholly built in 1770-1 by John Radclifte Ci 

 of plastered brick, and stands about the four sides of 

 a courtyard, which represents the old, small, cloister 

 , garth. The roofs are covered with tiles and lead. 

 In the original building the church was probably to 

 the south, the frater to the north, the dorter chapter- 

 house to the east of the garth. The walls of the 

 courtyard have been much renewed, but in the north 

 and west wings are many arches, now blocked, of the 

 original cloister arcade, and part of the inner wall, 

 showing the cloister to have been 9 ft. wide. The 

 arches are two-centred and continuously moulded, 

 with double ogees and chamfers, but the tracery is 

 gone ; the piers between them are 4. ft. 6 in. wide. 

 One arch remains open, and forms the principal 

 entrance of the house, but three at least are visible 

 inside the wall of the north wing, and two in the 

 west wing, and others are said to be bricked up and 

 plastered. The north cloister is now represented by 

 a loggia with an arcade of the late I "th century, set 

 in place of the bricked-up arcade of the I 5th century. 

 The cellarage under the north wing represents that 

 under the frater. The space originally occupied by 

 the frater, on the first floor of this wing, is now 

 divided into several bedrooms. The north elevation 

 was completely altered late in the I 7th century. The 

 ground story has an open arcade of five semicircular 

 arches with moulded imposts, and a frieze of rosettes 

 between cable mouldings ; the central arch, which is 

 set in a slight projection, has strapwork in the 

 spandrels, with a shield of the Radclifte arms, the 

 initials r r s, and the date 1679. The windows 

 above the arcade and the moulded cornice, of which 

 all the detail is of plaster, are of the 1 8th century. 

 The arcade in the courtyard belongs to the same 

 period of reconstruction as the south elevation. The 

 north elevation is of the late iSth century, and is an 

 elaborate Palladian design ; the south wing was 

 completely rebuilt about this time, and contains the 

 principal rooms. The east wing, which contains the 

 mam staircase, a few rooms and some cellars on the 

 ground level, presents an elevation patched and much 

 repaired, like that of the west wing, which contains 

 the domestic offices, and is much obscured by out- 

 buildings of different dates. There is some early 

 17th-century panelling in this wing, and in a small 

 north room is a plaster ceiling of the same date, with 

 cable and foliate decoration. 



The parish church of ST. MARY** 

 CHURCH stands to the north-east of the market- 

 place and the churchyard is bounded 



HITCHIN 



on the east by the River Hiz. The church consists 

 of a chancel, 6G nave and aisles, north and south 

 chapels, west tower, north and south porches and 

 charnel. It is built of flint rubble with stone dress- 

 ings and has been heavily cemented. The tower 

 incorporates some re-used Roman bricks, some 

 16th or 17th-century brick used in repairs, and also 

 some later brickwork. The roofs of aisles, south 

 porch and tower are of lead, those of nave and chancel 

 are slated. 



The genera! exterior character of the building is 

 that of the 15th century, all the windows being of 

 that date, and the tower, from which a small lead- 

 covered spire rises, aisles and south porch, north and 

 south chapels and chancel having embattled parapets. 

 The aisles, chapels and chancel are buttressed. The 

 fabric, however, ranges from the 12th to the late 

 t ;th century. 



The nave, and at least the lower stages of the 

 tower, are those of the 12th-century church, which 

 probably consisted of chancel, nave and west tower 

 only. The tower was probably completed about the 

 middle of the 13th century, when the present tower 

 arch was inserted and the stair-turret at the south- 

 east of the tower built. About three-quarters of a 

 century later first the north and then the south aisle 

 was built and the arcades of the nave made. Either 

 at the same time or slightly earlier the chancel was 

 enlarged to about two-thirds of its present length 

 and possibly to its present width. In the following 

 century the chancel was still further enlarged, reaching 

 its present proportions, and the foundation of the 

 1 4th-century east wall was made to form the west 

 wall of the charnel, which v 



The whole church underwent a thorough re- 

 handling during the 15th century; in addition to 

 the enlargement of the chancel and construction of 

 the charnel the north and south chapels were added, 

 and arcades inserted between them and the chancel 

 with a clearstory over. The chancel arch was some- 

 what clumsily raised to a great height, the clearstory 

 of the nave was added and the north porch built, 

 while new windows were inserted throughout the 

 church, which was largely re-roofed. Lastly, the 

 elaborate south porch was added towards the end of 

 the century. Later work on the church is limited to 

 certain 17th and 19th-century repairs, mostly in 



The church is unusually rich in 14th and 15th- 

 century timber and woodwork, which will be described 

 in order of its occurrence. 



The chancel has a much-restored 15th-century 

 east window of five lights traceried in the head ; the 

 centre light is not crossed by the transoms, of which 

 two divide each pair of side lights. 



The north and south sides of the chancel are 

 ! 5th-century arcades of four bays ; the easternmost 

 arch of each arcade is slightly wider in span than the 

 rest and is four-centred of two moulded orders, the 

 inner one springing oft" carved corbels, the outer one 

 continuous. The rest are two-centred, of two moulded 

 orders, and supported on columns with engaged shafts, 



86 V.C.H.Mtm, Warn. TC-16 ) Archa**- 

 hp* (Soc. of Antio,), xviii, 4+7-8- 



6i Aa late as i;ai the dedication was 

 o St. Andrew. 



66 Dimensions : chancel, 71ft. 6 in. 

 \y 19 ft. 6 in. ; north chapel, %t ft. 6 in. 

 vide; south chapel, 21 ft. wide; nave, 



74 ft, 6 in. by 2 



south 



21 ft. by 20 ft. 6 in. } north pi 

 6 in. by 9 ft. 6 in. ; south pi 



