All Saints' Church, Hertford
| All Saints' Church, Hertford | |
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| All Saints', Hertford with St John's, Hertford Heath | |
All Saints' Church, Hertford, from the southwest
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 All Saints' Church, Hertford
Location in Hertfordshire
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| Coordinates: 51°47′42″N 0°04′33″W / 51.7950°N 0.0757°W | |
| OS grid reference | TL 328,125 |
| Location | Queens Road, Hertford, Hertfordshire |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Website | All Saints, Hertford |
| History | |
| Former name(s) | All Hallows, Hertford |
| Founded | ?700 AD |
| Dedication | All Saints |
| Consecrated | 20 February 1895 |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade II* |
| Designated | 12 April 1973 |
| Architect(s) |
Paley, Austin and Paley Austin and Paley |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style |
Gothic Revival (Perpendicular) |
| Groundbreaking | 1893 |
| Completed | 1905 |
| Specifications | |
| Capacity | 800 |
| Height | 140 feet (42.7 m) |
| Materials | Runcorn sandstone |
| Administration | |
| Parish | All Saints with St. John, Hertford |
| Deanery | Hertford and Ware |
| Archdeaconry | Hertford |
| Diocese | St Albans |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Clergy | |
| Rector | Revd Canon Jo Loveridge BA MTh AKC |
| Assistant priest(s) | Revd Gerry Booker |
| Laity | |
| Reader(s) | Janet Bird Geoffrey Oates |
| Organist/Director of music | Martin Penny MA (Oxon) FRCO MCIM MISM |
| Organist(s) | John Norris BA FGMS PGCE |
| Organ scholar | Michael Stephens Jones |
| Chapter clerk | Kay Povey-Richards |
| Churchwarden(s) | Colin Bird Richard Toyn |
| Flower guild | Dorothy Toyn |
| Music group(s) | Samantha Chadwick |
| Parish administrator | Martin Penny |
All Saints' Church is in Queens Road, Hertford, Hertfordshire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Hertford and Ware, the archdeaconry of Hertford, and the diocese of St Albans. It is the civic church of the town and of the county. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is the largest church in Hertfordshire, other than St Albans Cathedral, and can seat up to 1,000 people.
The parish dates back to before the 10th century, and a church was present on the site at the time of the Domesday Survey. This church was replaced during the 15th century by a church with a cruciform plan and a west tower. The parish of All Saints was merged with that of St John in the 17th century. On 22 December 1891 the church was destroyed by fire. A competition was held to design a new church, which was won by the Lancaster firm of architects, Paley, Austin and Paley. The foundation stone was laid on 25 March 1893 and the new church was consecrated by the Bishop of St Albans on 20 February 1895. The insurance for the old church paid only £2.800 (equivalent to £280,000 in 2016), toward the cost, and a further £12,500 (equivalent to £1,330,000 in 2016) was raised by public subscription. In 1904–05 the church was completed at the west end and by adding the tower. This was done by the Lancaster practice, now known as Austin and Paley, and cost £10,366 (equivalent to £1,020,000 in 2016). In 1934 the Memorial Chapel was completed to the memory of those who died in the First World War. New glass doors were added at the west end of the church in 2003.
The church is constructed in red Runcorn sandstone, with lead and tiled roofs. Its architectural style is Gothic Revival (Perpendicular). The plan consists of a nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, a northwest porch, a north transept, a chancel with a north vestry, a south chapel, and a west tower. The tower is in three stages, with a half-octagonal stair turret on the north side, and buttresses at the angles. It has a west door above which is a five-light window. In the middle stage are two-light windows and clock faces on all sides. The top stage contains two-light louvreed bell openings, one on the north side, and two on the others. The parapet is castellated and traceried, with gargoyles at the corners, and crocketed pinnacles rising from the corners and the centre of each side. The summit of the stair turret is also castellated, and is surmounted by a spirelet. The aisles are divided into bays by buttresses, each bay containing a three-light window. The clerestory has two two-light flat-headed windows in each bay. At the northwest corner of the church is a two-storey hexagonal porch, with angle buttresses, and two-light windows. On each side of the church, at the junction of the nave and chancel, are octagonal turrets with castellated parapets and low domes. In the north transept is a five-light window, and the vestry has two- and three-light windows. The south chapel has three bays, two-light windows on the south side, and a four-light window on the east side. The east window of the chancel has seven lights. On the side walls of the chancel are panels carved with texts; on the north side the text is from Psalm 103, and on the south side it is from the Te Deum.
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