The church of OUR LADY, North Mimms, consists of chancel 32 ft. 3 in. by 18 ft. 4 in., with north vestry and north chapel 23 ft. 4 in. by 13 ft.; nave, 43 ft. 3 in. by 18 ft. 2 in., with north and south aisles 10 ft. 2 in. wide; south porch, and west tower. The masonry of the walls is of flints, with a certain quantity of Totternhoe stone and brick, and a few blocks of pudding stone, the roofs of nave and chancel being redtiled, and those of the aisles of flat pitch, leaded. The oldest part of the church is the chancel, which is of the same width as the nave, and has a slight lean to the south. The north chapel, which appears to have been built for a chantry founded in 1328 by Simon Swanlond, and had an altar of St. Katherine, follows the line of the chancel, and the chancel walls are doubtless older than the date of the building of the chapel. About 1340 the nave and aisles were entirely rebuilt, though it is probable that the dimensions of the former nave were preserved; and a central tower, which would have taken up the western half of the existing chancel, was planned but never carried out. The date of the stoppage is significant, and may be another instance of the effects of the Black Death of 1348–9, though the division of liability at this point between rector and parish must also be taken into account. When building was again undertaken it was on a less ambitious scale, and the lack of a tower was supplied by the erection of the present west tower in the fifteenth century. In modern times (1860) the church has been repaired, and the north vestry and south porch are modern additions.
The chancel has a three-light east window, with net tracery, but only the arch and jambs are old. In the south wall are two windows, both with modern tracery, the eastern of the two, which has an ancient head and jambs, being of two cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over, and the second having net tracery. Between the windows is a plain pointed doorway, the external stonework being modern, and below the first window an arched recess for the sedilia, with a fourteenth-century cinquefoiled piscina to the east. No stonework in the windows or doorway appears to be older than the beginning of the fourteenth century, but the masonry of the walls may possibly be of somewhat earlier date. At the east end of the north wall is the door to the vestry, made of white marble, and forming part of the basement of the large white marble monument of John, Lord Somers, 1716. The greater part of the north side of the chancel is taken up by an arcade of two bays in modern stonework, opening to the north chapel. The chancel arch, which was intended to be the western arch of a central tower, is high and massive, of three chamfered orders springing from recessed and chamfered piers with moulded capitals and bases, and is abutted on north and south by smaller arches of like detail which would have opened from the aisles into the transepts, that on the south being blocked. Parts of the west jambs of the northern and southern arches of the tower also remain. The north chapel, the east end of which is blocked by an organ, has two original windows on the north of two trefoiled lights with a flowing quatrefoil in the head, the lines of the inclosing arch following those of the tracery. The modern vestry is built against its east wall, and is lighted by a two-light east window, copied from those of the chapel.
The nave is of three bays with north and south arcades of two orders, the details being like those of the chancel arch, and the aisles are lighted by three-light windows with net tracery, three on the north and one at the west of the north aisle, and two on the south and one at the west in the south aisle, the middle bay of the latter containing the south doorway with a continuous moulded outer arch having a hollow casement between two double ogees. Externally the windows have moulded labels, and all the stonework in the nave, except where repaired, is of the date of the rebuilding, c. 1340. At the east end of the south aisle is the blocked arch already noticed, and the south-east buttress is of red brick with a stone sundial which appears to be dated 1584 and has a mutilated inscription. The south-west buttress is of wrought stone and comparatively modern date. The tower has diagonal buttresses at all four angles, and has been built outside the west end of the nave, the junction being made by means of the eastern buttresses. It is tall, of three stages, with a plastered embattled parapet and a wooden spire covered with sheet copper. The belfry stage has windows of two cinquefoiled lights with flattened heads, and the stage below is blank except on the west, where there is a three-light window with net tracery, like those in the nave.
Below it is a fine fourteenth-century doorway of three moulded orders with flowers in the hollows and jambs, with three engaged shafts and excellent foliate capitals. The labels over the arch and window are, however, of fifteenth-century section, though much patched with Roman cement, and it seems probable that both door and window were originally in the west wall of the nave, and have been reset here at the building of the tower. The wall on either side of the west door has bands of wrought stone, and in the lower part chequers of stone and flint. The east arch of the tower is of fifteenth-century date, with an engaged shaft and moulded capitals to the inner order, and at the south-west angle is a stone stair. The pulpit, of early seventeenth-century date, is a good specimen of woodwork, hexagonal with panelled sides, and a deep band of carving above the panels, the base and cornice being modern. The altar-table is also of the seventeenth century, with baluster legs, but with these exceptions the church retains no old woodwork in roofs or fittings, though the stone corbels of a former fifteenth-century nave roof remain. In the north chapel is some seventeenth-century heraldic glass with Coningsby alliances, and a few pieces of white and gold fifteenth-century glass with a well-preserved figure of a majesty. The font stands at the west end of the nave, and is modern.
The church is rich in monuments. On the north wall of the church is a beautiful fourteenth-century brass (probably Flemish, c. 1350), said to be that of Thomas de Horton, 1360. It shows the figure of a priest in mass vestments holding a chalice, which is covered by a paten, and standing under a cusped canopy on a bracket-shaped base on which are two lions seated back to back, having between them a shield charged with a saltire between four crosses crosslet fitchy. Beneath the priest's feet is a stag. Above the canopy is a row of arched panels, that in the middle containing a figure of our Lord holding the soul of the deceased, between censing angels; and on either side, in the jambs of the canopy, are figures of Sts. Peter, James, and Andrew on the right hand, and Paul, John Evangelist, and Bartholomew on the left. On the south wall of the chancel, below the piscina, is a brass plate with an inscription to Thomas Hewet, 1587, and his wife Elizabeth, 1590; and east of the south door are the figures of a knight in plate armour with fluted tuilles and a mail hauberk, of a civilian and his wife with four sons and six daughters, and of Richard Butler and his wife, c. 1560. West of the south door is the figure of Elizabeth Knolles, 1458, and two sons, and an inscription below to her husband Robert Knolles, the date of his death being left blank. All these brasses were taken up from the floor in 1860.
In the north-east angle of the chancel is the large white marble monument of John, Lord Somers, 1716, with a seated figure of Justice. The marble door in the base of the monument has been already noticed. In the north chapel is a panelled altar tomb of early fifteenth-century style, said to be that of Elizabeth Coningsby; and below the north-west window of the north aisle a late sixteenth-century altar-tomb of alabaster with an incised figure of a woman on the slab, the lines being inlaid with a black composition. Round the edge of the slab is a much-worn inscription in raised black-letter, a fine and effective work. It commemorates a lady of the Barford family. Near it on the walls are several eighteenth-century marble monuments, the best being that of George Jarvis, 1718, with a white marble bust. There are six bells, all by John Briant of Hertford, 1806, and a blank priest's bell. The plate comprises a silver communion cup of c. 1570, the marks being obliterated, with two bands of strap-work round the bowl; a second cup, copied from it in 1849; a paten of 1717, and a flagon of 1707, both engraved with a lozenge containing six ostrich feathers; and a brass almsdish. Besides these there are two unusual and interesting pieces, a tall standing covered cup of Nuremberg make, c. 1610, of silver gilt, and a very remarkable amber tankard, silver-gilt mounted, with figures of the Virtues in low relief, German work of the seventeenth century. The earliest register preserved is a strip of parchment with entries of baptisms 1565–67, the book next in date containing all entries from 1656 to 1725, and five entries of baptisms between 1647 and 1655. The third book, 1679–1749, contains the burials in woollen, and the fourth has all entries 1725–55. The fifth has marriages 1754–1812, the sixth baptisms 1755–93, the seventh burials 1755–1810, the eighth baptisms 1793–1812, and the ninth burials 1810–12. Christ Church, Little Heath, is a modern building in fourteenth-century style, erected in 1893, consisting of chancel, nave, and transepts. The registers date from the yeare of erection.
The church of North Mimms was in early times attached to the manor. In 1237–8 Stephen de Somery presented, and in 1239 the right of patronage was apportioned to Peter Picot as part of his share of the manor. In 1293–4, however, Peter and Ralph de Monchesny agreed to present alternately, and John, son and heir of Ralph, gave the advowson to John Sendale, bishop of Winchester, who was vicar from 1307 to 1311. The apparent absence of any like grant from the holders of the possessions of Peter Picot may partly account for the later disputes as to the tenure of the advowson. John, son of William Sendale and heir of Bishop John, gave it to Bartholomew Badlesmere and Margaret his wife, and they, in 1320, were licensed to grant it to the canons of the religious house which Bartholomew had founded in Badlesmere.
In 1322 Bartholomew was executed for his adherence to Thomas, earl of Lancaster, and his wife Margaret was kept a prisoner in the Tower, until, through the mediation of William, Lord Ros of Hamelak, she obtained her freedom. She afterwards retired to the house of the Minorite Sisters, without Aldgate, where a sum of 2s. a day was paid for her maintenance. Giles, son of Bartholomew and Margaret, was a minor at the time of his father's death, and when he died in 1338–9, he was seised of the advowson of North Mimms. It must, therefore, have been recovered from the canons at Badlesmere before this time. Giles left no children, and his heirs were his four sisters, Margery wife of William, Lord Ros de Hamelak, Maud wife of John de Vere, earl of Oxford, Elizabeth wife of William de Bohun, earl of Northampton, and Margaret wife of John Tiptoft, but the advowson was assigned to his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William de Montacute, earl of Salisbury, who afterwards married Sir Hugh le Despenser. The reversion was allotted to Margaret wife of John Tiptoft, who had two sons, John and Robert. Margaret died before Elizabeth, and on the death of the latter the advowson descended to John. He died a minor in 1360, and his brother Robert succeeded. On attaining his majority, three years later, Robert enfeoffed John de la Lee of the advowson, who in turn enfeoffed Thomas Strete, Henry Strete of Knesworth, and Adam de Wyvelingham. They enfeoffed Nicholas de Thorneton, and Thomas Bedewin, clerks, who in their turn granted the advowson to Richard II and William bishop of London. These grantees confirmed it to the prior and convent of the Charterhouse, London, in 1378, and the church was appropriated to them in 1383.
In 1399, Beatrix Mountviron impleaded the prior as to his right to the advowson, as it had been included in the lease of the manor made to her by William Swanlond, and she alleged that it had been inherited by William from his father Simon, who had indeed been able to usurp a presentation during the minority of Robert Tiptoft. Further, during the course of a suit between Henry, earl of Lincoln, and William son of Simon Swanlond, 'a certain venerable and trusty man' testified that his uncle, William de Kesteven, had been induced to insert a grant of the advowson in the charter by which he gave a quarter of the manor to the husband of Beatrix Mountviron, although he had openly said, at the time of the sale, that he had no right therein. In 1398 Beatrix had alienated this quarter of the manor to Thomas Knolles, and had presented John Rowland to the church. In this yeare she united with Thomas Knolles in promising to Rowland forgiveness of a certain payment of £500, if he should maintain her right and come to no agreement with the prior. The king, however, ordered, in 1401–2, that restitution of the patronage should be made to the Charterhouse.
In 1508 the abbot and convent leased to Thomas King and Joan his wife, for twenty years, all the parsonage of North Mimms, except the advowson of the vicarage, and a stable and chamber annexed to the upper end of the hall of the said parsonage. This may possibly be the manor of the rectory already referred to. After the expiration of the above lease they re-leased it in 1526 for thirty years to Allen Hord, with the same exceptions, and on condition that if the prior or proctor or other servants of the Charterhouse should come to the said parsonage twice or thrice every yeare during the said time, Allen 'shall find and minister to the prior or proctor and to three or four of their servants, with their horses by the space of two days and two nights there abiding, sufficient meats and drinks, with hay, provender, and litter for their horses at every such time during the said thirty years.' Allen also undertook to deliver at the Charterhouse every year, between Easter and Midsummer, as many loads of good 'char colys,' every load containing twenty-four sacks well filled with 'colys,' as shall be needful to be spent within the said Charterhouse, receiving for each load 6s. Allen was pledged not to cut or poll any timber or underwood on the land of the said parsonage, except for reasonable cart-bote, plough-bote, and fire-bote. The lease was to be in force only three years after the death of Allen, if he should die within the said thirty years.
After the Dissolution the rectory and advowson were granted in 1544 to Henry Grubbe, who died seised in 1557, leaving his son George his heir. George died in 1577, and was succeeded by his son Eustace, who was a minor at the time of his father's death, and had livery of the rectory and advowson in 1582. From him they passed on his death in 1642 to his son John, upon whom it had been settled by his father in 1612 on his marriage with Mary daughter of William Preston of Childwick. William Emerton presented in 1681, and it afterwards came to the family of Blackmore. In 1691 it belonged to Thomas Blackmore, who married Anne, second daughter of Sir Jonathan Raymond. Thomas Blackmore, jun., presented in 1707, and Raymond Blackmore, probably a son of Thomas, conveyed it in 1729 to Charles Osborn, and in 1749 Henry Blackmore presented. He was the son of Thomas and Anne, and was succeeded by his daughter Elizabeth, wife of William Fullerton. It afterwards came to their son William Fullerton, who devised it to Catherine Fullerton, his half-sister. The king presented in 1768 by a lapse, and Catherine Fullerton in 1790. In 1801 Catherine conveyed the advowson to Samuel Robert Gaussen, from whom it descended, with the manor of Brookmans, to Mrs. Herbert Loftus Tottenham, now Mrs. Gaussen, the present patron.
The living of Christ Church, Little Heath, is a vicarage in the gift of the Church Patronage Society. In 1328 Simon Swanlond founded a chantry of one priest in the chapel of St. Katherine in the parish church of North Mimms. The chaplain was to say one mass daily at the altar of St. Katherine for Simon and his wife during their lives; and after their death for their souls and those of their parents and of all faithful departed. He might celebrate nowhere else without the leave of Simon or his heirs, and he was not to say mass on Sundays and feast-days until after the celebration in the parish church had been completed. The presentation rested with Simon and his heirs. The priest must swear at his institution to keep the ordinance of his chantry, and was removable by the diocesan. In 1334 Simon obtained licence to increase the endowment of the chantry, and in 1404 the advowson was transferred, with leave from the pope, by William Swanlond to Thomas Knolles.
In 1549 land and tenements which had been granted for lights and repairs to the church were granted to Sir John Perient and Thomas Reve. The tenement was called Berdford or the Church House, and had lately been in the tenure of John Pavys, and was then held by Henry Grubbe. A brotherhood of our Lady existed at North Mimms in the sixteenth century, for William Hottyng bequeathed a legacy to the brotherhood by his will dated 1515. In this parish there is only one licence of a house as a meeting-place for Nonconformists. This house was registered in 1776, but the Nonconformists seem to have obtained no footing in the parish, and have no chapel here at the present time.
'Parishes: North Mimms', A History of the County of Hertford: volume 2 (1908), pp. 251-61.