A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



slabs to Judith the wife of Rowland Lytton, 1659 ; 

 to Sir William Lytton, 1660 ; Sir Rowland Lytton, 

 167+ ; Judith (Lytton) wife of Sir Thomas Barring- 

 ton, 1657, with arms, and to the son of Giles 

 Strangways, 1646. In the nave, on the west splay of 

 the north window, is a defaced inscription, said to be to 

 John de Hall, rector, with the date of birth, I 395. 



There are five bells : (1) by John Waylett, 1716 ; 

 (z) and (J) by Edward Hall, 1730 and i 7 3* i (4) 

 dated 1697 ; and (;) by J. Briwt, 1812. 



The plate includes a 17th-century cup, with the 

 date erased, and a paten of 1668. 



The registers are contained in four boob . (i) 

 all entries 1606 to 1702 ; (ii) baptisms and burials 

 1703 to i8i2,marriages 1703 to 1753 ; (iii) baptisms 

 and burials 1709 to 1812, marriages 1709 to 1753 ; 

 (iv) marriages 1754 to j8li. 



The advowson of the church has 

 ADVOWSON always belonged to the lord of the 

 manor. In 1214-15 it was granted 

 by Richard de Andevill to Hamelin de Andevill and 

 his heirs" (see manor). The Earl of Lytton is the 

 present patron. 



A terrier of 1638 describes the parsonage as 'con- 

 taining a hall, two parlours, a kitchin, a larder and 

 buttery below stayres and seaven several! roome* 

 above stayres.' There were also ' a milke house and 

 bolting house, a tame contayuing five bayes, a 

 gamer, a stable, an hayhouse, a carthouse, a little 

 stable, hogscoate and hennhouse ; a garden and oar- 

 chard.' The glebe lands consisted of 51 acres, with 

 a cottage ' tyled contayning three rooms below and 

 one above.' M 



There seems to be no record of early Dissent in 

 Knebworth, but a Congregational chapel was erected 

 in 1887. 



In 181 1 William Johnson by his 

 CHARITIES will bequeathed _£ioo consols, the 

 annual dividends, amounting to 

 £2 10s., to be distributed among eight poor house- 

 keepers, with a preference to those attending divine 

 worship. The stock is held by the official trustees. 



In 1836 Mrs. Elizabeth Barbara Bulwer Lytton 

 erected five almshouses on the Codicote road for old 

 and deserving people of the parish, supported by the 

 Earl of Lytton. 



LETCHWORTH 



The parish of Letchworth, containing about 888 

 acres of land, lies between Walsworth and Willian ; 

 its northern boundary is formed by the Icknield 

 Way, the southern by the main road between Great 

 Wymondley and Baldock. The detached part ofthe 

 parish surrounding Burleigh Farm, 8 miles south ofthe 

 town of Letchworth, was transferred to Knebworth 

 by a Local Government Board Order of 1907. By 

 the same order Norton and Willian were amalgamated 

 with Letchworth for civil purposes, but by a further 

 order of 1 908 the latter was made a civil parish. 



The town of Letchworth stands on the borders of 

 Bedfordshire. It has a station on the HStchin and 

 Cambridge branch of the Great Northern railway. 



The grounds of Letchworth Hall, now an hotel 

 belonging to the Garden City, adjoin the churchyard 

 on the south side. It is said to have been built by 

 Sir William Lytton about the year 1610, on the site 

 of an earlier house, and all the old parts of the existing 

 building are Jacobean in character. In plan it 

 resembles the letter T. the hall and some rooms to 

 the southward forming the vertical portion, while a 

 wing on the west containing the dining room, Sec., 

 and another on the east, occupied by the kitchen 

 offices, form the upper part of the T- A large block 

 of buildings was erected on the north side by the 

 Rev. John Alington before 1 846. He also built some 

 detached stables to the south of the hall. The old part 

 of the building is of thin z-in. bricks. Some blocks of 

 clunch and flint in a small disused porch at the extreme 

 south end may be a portion of the former building. 

 The eaves of the central hall are low, but rooms are 

 formed in the roof, lighted by dormer windows at the 

 back, and on the front by a window in a brick gable 

 which seems to be a much later addition or a re- 

 building. The principal entrance is by a porch, with 

 a room over, on the east side of the hall. This porch 



of brick with a flat three-centred 

 arch. Each of the gables has a brick coping, with an 

 octagonal terminal at the apex, but the top of the 

 finial at the apex has disappeared. All the roofs are 

 tiled. At the back or west aide of the hall is a 

 boldly projecting chimney, with offsets above the 

 roof, and finished on the top with two square 

 detached shafts set diagonally. All the older windows 

 have oak mulHons, but many of the others are more 

 modern in construction. On the south wall of the 

 west wing are three stone panels; the central one, 

 which has been rebuilt into a modern bay window, 

 bears a shield with the following arms : Quarterly 

 of 4 : (1) Ermine a chief indented with three crowns 

 therein, for Lytton ; {2) Three boars' heads, for 

 Booth ; (3) A fesse between six acorns with three oak 

 leaves on the fesse for Ogden ; (4) Ermine a cross with 

 five escallops thereon. The shield on the right bean 

 the arms of Lytton impaling St. John. The panel 

 on the right is carved with two birds holding a ring 

 between them, with the inscription above : 'Sic nos 

 junxit amor.' Beyond the porch is a passage running 

 the full width of the hall, under what was, until 

 Alington's time, the musicians' gallery, now built up 

 and thrown into a bedroom. A small modern stair 

 at the end of the passage no doubt occupies the 

 position ofthe old gallery stair. Some old balusters 

 and newels have been re-used on this stair. The oak 

 screen next the hall is a very fine and highly enriched 

 piece of work of the time of James I. It is in a 

 perfect condition, though one section of it has been 

 moved about 2 ft. forward to give more room for 

 the stair behind, and the upper part has been removed. 

 There are two openings in the centre, each about 

 4 ft. wide, with flat arches over, the openings being 

 separated by a circular column with Doric capital. 

 The remainder of the screen is filled in with diagonal 



* Feet of F. Htm. 1 





* Hirli. Gtn. and Anlia. 



.84-5. 



