Church of St Nicholas, Norton

The Church of St Nicholas in Norton in Hertfordshire is the parish church for what was originally the village of Norton but which today has become a suburb of Letchworth Garden City. The present building dates to about 1109 to 1119, with additions in the 15th century including the tower. Before the Reformation it was a stopping point on the pilgrim route to the Abbey of St Albans and the shrine there.

The manor at Norton had belonged to the Abbey of St Albans since c.795, although they lost control of it for a period before it was restored to them in a charter of 1007. It is believed that there has been a church on the site since 1002, and the Domesday Book of 1086 mentions a priest at Norton. The present St Nicholas Church in Norton dates back to about 1119, having been built and dedicated by Hervey le Breton, Bishop of Ely. In about 1258 Laurence, the Rector at Norton, donated a tithe of the parish income to the Abbey of St Albans to help provide hospitality to travellers, mostly pilgrims visiting the shrine at the Abbey. In 1291 Pope Nicholas IV drew up a list of churches in England for taxation purposes. In this Norton is described as being in the Deanery of Baldock and the Archdeaconry of St Albans. In the same year the Pope granted indulgences to pilgrims visiting the church at Norton for the four feasts of the year dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

When the Abbey of St Albans was dissolved in 1539 the church and the rights reverted to Henry VIII. During the next 450 years these were owned firstly by the Bowles family of Wallington, then the Haselfoote family and after them by others until 1908 when they were purchased by the Bishop of St Albans. By the middle of the 17th century Norton seems to have been Puritan by persuasion, and in 1649 two Norton inhabitants, John Knott and Elizabeth Palmer, were hanged at St Albans for witchcraft. Before his execution Knott accused 9 other Norton villagers of the same offence, but none seem to have been tried.

...
Wikipedia