Church of St Mary

The parish church in Ivinghoe was founded in 1220 On 9 May 1234 the church and the town was burned down by the rebel Richard Siward in an attack on the lands of the church's patron, Peter des Roches the Bishop of Winchester.

Nikolaus Pevsner described St. Mary's as "a big and noble church". This Early English church was laid out c.1220 in an original cruciform floorplan with a central tower topped with a lead flèche, a typical example of a Hertfordshire spike. The present bells were recast by John Warner & Sons of London in 1875. Within the church, the aisles are lit by Decorated Period windows. Much medieval stonework is in evidence with moulded doorways and ballflower ornaments and carved foliated bosses. The church is especially noted for its fine 15th-century tie-beam roof, supported by stone corbels with sculpted heads and carved wooden angels with outspread wings. In the nave roof, the braces feature…