St Cecilia’s Church, Little Hadham - Medieval Churches on Waymarking.com

The parish church of Little Hadham originally served a medieval village nearby. The hilltop location at Church End was an Anglo Saxon location close to the nearby Roman road, Stane Street. Around 1600 the village migrated westwards to a more important crossroads leaving the church and a couple of farms isolated between the village and Hadham hall.

The church is of largely 14th century construction. Flint rubble with stone dressings were used for the nave, chancel and W tower, whilst red brick was used for the late 16th century North transept and 19th century vestry. The walls of the unaisled nave are possibly dateable to the 12th century. The tower is of 3 stages with diagonal buttresses, embattled parapet and a short leaded spire.

The chancel was extensively restored 1883 by Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-99) for Mr Bury, first rector of newly separated parish. He refaced the East and South walls in flintwork and provided a new 3-light East window, pine hammer-beam roof, seating, encaustic tile floor and steps, altar, carved stone reredos, iron altar rail, and a small vestry on the North.

A wide 4-centred moulded arch on semioctagonal piers and moulded caps opens from the nave into the transept which appears to have provided a gallery and private entrance in its East wall for the Capell family of Hadham Hall. This converted the linear medieval church plan to a classic Protestant T-plan.

The church has two medieval brasses on boards on the South wall, one a. knight and lady c.1485, the other a priest C15. There are fine inscribed floor slabs N and S of altar raised from the Capel vault in the1883 restoration.

Building Materials: Stone

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