St Mary's Church

General information

St Mary's Watford is a Church of England church in Watford, Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom. It is situated in the town centre on Watford High Street, approximately 25km outside London. St Mary's is the parish church of Watford and is part of the Anglican Diocese of St Albans. Thought to be at least 800 years old, the church contains burials of a number of local nobility and some noteworthy monumental sculpture of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.HistoryNo documentary records exist of the origins of Watford Parish Church; the earliest parish records do not begin until 1539, but the church is understood to be considerably older. The building seen today is mainly 15th century in origin, although the oldest parts of the fabric are estimated to date from around 1230. During renovations in 1871, church restorers discovered that 12th-century stonework had been incorporated into the later medieval building, and in the hardcore of the tower walls, the basin of a 12th-century baptismal font had been discarded. The presence of masonry from this era suggests that St Mary's Church was probably established at around the same time that the charter was granted for Watford Market to the Lord of the Manor at Cashio, an Abbott of St Albans Abbey. The precise date that this licence was awarded is not known; historians estimate that it was during the reign of either King Henry I (1100-1135) or King Henry II (1154–1189).