Where are Hertford's lost churches?

To accompany our new gallery of Hertford’s churches, we look back at the houses of worship that can no longer be found in the town.

Hertford has eleven churches, some very old, some very new. St.Leonard’s in Bengeo is the oldest - a Norman church dating back to around 1120.The most recently built church is the Methodist church in Ware Road, constructed on the site of an earlier church in the 1963.

Remains of St.Mary's Church in Old Cross

And then there are the seven churches that no longer stand:

St.Mary’s

St.Mary’s was one of the town’s earliest churches and stood close to Old Cross. The last Rector of St.Mary’s was inducted in 1503 and the church pulled down in 1514. Remnants of the church were discovered when the old library was built in 1887 and partially rebuilt in Old Cross. The altar stone is merged into the Communion table of St.Andrew’s church.

St.Nicholas

Another of Hertford’s earliest churches was St.Nicholas, which stood on a site now behind the Santander Bank in Maidenhead Street . The last Rector of St.Nicholas was presented in 1424 and the church demolished in 1675.

St.John's

Hertford Priory was founded between 1077 and 1093 and featured a large church. The church was demolished around 1540 following the dissolution of the priory. A smaller church was built on the site in 1629 but did not survive the century, being demolished by order of the Bishop of Lincoln due to poor construction.

Christ Church

Christ Church was built by Abel Smith in Port Vale in the 1860. It was pulled down around a century later and is now the site of homes.

Christ’s Hospital Chapel

The chapel of Christ's Hospital opened in 1906 and served the school until it closed in 1985. The building was demolished in the following years to make way for Tesco’s car park.

Christ's Hospital chapel

Port Vale Chapel

The Calvinist Independent Chapel was built for a breakaway congregation from St.Andrew's, who followed the then Rector, Rev Bernard Gilpin, when he resigned the post in 1835. The building was recently demolished and replaced by homes

Ebenezer Chapel

The Ebenezer Strict Baptist Chapel stood in North Road and the foundation stone bore the date 1773. It was demolished to make way for Gascoyne way in the 1960s.

Other churches have been and gone - demolished and rebuilt. The current All Saints church is a late Victorian structure replacing an earlier church that burnt to the ground in December 1891. St.Andrew’s was consecrated in 1870 and replaced an earlier 15th century building on the site. The Modern Methodist church was built in 1963, replacing an earlier church from 1867.