Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Baldock

The advowson or patronage of the church of St. Mary at Baldock originally belonged to the Knights Templar, who built the original church in about 1150 on land given to them by Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of Pembroke (parts of this early church are found at the east end of the chancel), and it continued in their possession until their suppression in 1308. It was then granted, together with the manor of Baldock, to the Knights Hospitaller, who expanded it in about 1330 and who in 1335 granted the advowson for ten years to John de Blomvill. The latter in 1343 granted it for two years to Sir Walter de Manny, after which it presumably reverted to the Hospitallers. In 1359 it was claimed by the…

The church is built of flint rubble with stone dressings, while the tower is coated with Roman cement. Pieces of moulding and columns of an earlier building are used in the walls. The roofs of the north chapel and north aisle are of slate, and those of the rest of the church of lead. The church consists of a chancel, north and south chapels, nave, north and south aisles, west tower, and north and south porches. The whole of the church and the tower have embattled parapets, and the tower is surmounted by a leaden spire on an octagonal drum on top of which is a gold weathervane in the shape of a cockerel. The south chapel was begun in the last part of the 14th century and completed in the…

The east end of the chancel is from the original church on this site and is late 12th century, but the remainder of the chancel, the north chapel (now the vestry), the nave, north and south aisles, west tower, and probably the lower part of the south porch were built about 1330. The eastern and earlier portion of the chancel has an east window of five lights; under this window on the outside is a 14th-century niche with a trefoiled head, having a rebated edge, and the remains of iron hinges The late 14th century chancel screen (or rood screen), which is in the same line with those of the chapels, is a fine one in carved oak of three bays, and two half bays at the north and south ends. The…