This parish church is Grade I listed: nave C12th Norman; chancel enlarged from a smaller semi-circular Norman aspidal form in the early C13th ( some original Norman work can be seen in the western part of the Chancel ); west tower c1480; nave heightened and re-roofed in C15th; south porch probably C18th; north aisle, north vestry and general restoration 1887. It is built of flint rubble with stone dressings, the steep old red tile roof, pyramidal, to the tower is topped by a lead-covered standing cross with an octagonal tapered shaft. Low pitched lead roof to the nave.
This is a small parish church of a much shrunken village. Long rectangular chancel, taller nave with added north aisle and gabled north-east vestry, gabled south porch, tall west tower with crenellated parapet and diagonal buttresses at the west angles.
The west tower has a tower arch and west doorway of the late C15th, it is of two stages with external string courses below and above the belfry stage which has a two-light pointed louvred opening on each face. The three-light west window is of stopped pointed lights and stained glass of c.1889. West door of old shiplap vertical oak boarding under a pointed arch set in a deep square-headed moulded surround. The label has shield-shaped stops and there is a moulded deep stone dado-plinth to base of tower.
There is an interesting ring of six bells in the tower the oldest being an Elizabethan casting of 1589, a John Dier of Hitchin recasting of a bell of about 1442 from the Priory at Little Wymondley. The four bells of the priory were sold to Graveley [ after the suppression of 1536 ] and were noted as being of 24cwt ( 1220kg ) in weight but when received in 1557 they were noted as being only of 18cwt ( 915kg ) and it was concluded that the parish had been cheated by Henry VIII's government but there is no record of any compensation being paid to the parish. The Dier recast bell was the third of the four from Little Wymondley, the second also needed recasting and in 1605 it was recast by Robert Oldfield of Hertford, John Dier was no longer available to do the work as he was hanged in 1603 for murder. ( See below ) There followed various other castings until the two trebles were added in 1889 and another old one was recast in 1894. It shows how good the casting by John Dier is that it alone from all the other recastings has survived for over 420 years.
The six bells are hung in a frame made by J.Gray of Hertford in 1889, fitted when the ring was augmented to six, the ring was retuned and rehung by Gillet & Johnson of Croydon. The 1589 bell is hung in a special headstock as the bell can not now be altered, apart from tuning, in any way. The method of fastening bells to their headstocks has changed over the years and they are now directly attached using long bolts running through the crown of the bell and the headstock. Previously a series of loops were cast into the bell's crown much in the way old cannons were made, hence they are called 'cannons', old bells with these loops are not unusual, and the method of attaching them was by using straps of metal fastened around the wooden headstock. It is difficult to attach a bell with cannons to a metal headstock and up until recently the cannons were removed and mounting holes drilled, but in this case an unusual arrangement of an inverted bowl has been cast along with the headstock with internal claws holding the cannons. See picture in the gallery taken from a leaflet 'The Bells of St Mary, Graveley' available in the church.
The following is a table extracted from Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers showing the weights in kg, the sounding notes of the bells, the founder and the year of casting.
Bell Weight Note Dated Founder
1 225.44 F# 1889 Mears & Stainbank
2 242.67 E 1889 Mears & Stainbank
3 279.41 D c1700 (unidentified)
4 308.44 C# 1894 Mears & Stainbank
5 355.62 B 1589 John Dier
6 457.22 A 1830 Thomas II Mears
John Dier of Hitchin took over the foundry there previously run by John Green from 1571 until 1575. He cast bells there from 1577 until 1602. He was hanged in 1602 after being found guilty of the murder of one John Bonce. The jury at the trial at the Hertford Assizes on 23rd September 1603 found that:
'on 3rd August [1603], at Hitchin [Dyer assaulted Bonce and] did wringe and breake his neck. Guilty: to hang.'
This was probably as the result of an alehouse brawl which ended in tragedy. Dier was at the height of his powers as a craftsman with sufficient work to bring a good income with the prospect of several more productive years, so why this happened one can only speculate. ( Words taken from 'Hertfordshire Bellfounders' by Joyce Dodds, University of Hertfordshire Press, 2003 where she quotes the Calendar Of Assize James I, Hertfordshire Indictments, HMSO. )
Thomas II Mears cast bells in London at the family-owned Whitechapel Foundry from 1805 until 1844. George Mears and Robert Stainbank were the founders there between 1865 and 1883. The business was started in 1420 by Richard Chamberlain in Spitalfields and has been at the Whitechapel site for over 250yrs. Regretfully the firm closed in May 2017.
The bells are rung regularly for Divine Services and on other important occasions. Practice night is Wednesday.
Other words variously from British Listed Buildings, Pevsner's Hertfordshire Buildings, Simon Jenkins' England's Thousand Best Churches all amended and added to with own on-site observations.
Co-ordinates are for the tower.