Events at St Stephens Church – St Albans

14 Watling Street, St Albans, Herts AL1 2PX

http://ststephenandstjulian.org

St. Stephen’s is a beautiful old parish church, founded in 948 A.D. The Anglo Saxon building was small, probably divided into two rooms and without a tower. Little remains of this building, but the small window, deep set in rough masonry, just by the door to the Parish Centre has been dated to around 950 A.D. The building today is largely medieval, but it was sympathetically restored from a near ruinous condition in the 1860s.

The spire, replacing a “Hertfordshire spike” on the tower, dates from this time. The pews and ornamental woodwork are Victorian, and the attractive pulpit and canopy date from 1936.

The eagle lectern is a copy of a much earlier famous one which until recently stood in its place. There is a leaflet in the church giving details of the history of the early much travelled and plundered lectern.