All Saints, Kings Langley

All Saints is a Grade II* parish church on Church Lane, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, a medieval church that houses the tomb of Edmund of Langley, first Duke of York, brought from the dissolved priory in 1575.

Overview

The Royal Commission and the listing describe flint-rubble and brick walls with Totternhoe stone dressings. The chancel walls are thirteenth-century (lancet remains and a double piscina). The nave plan may be earlier; the north aisle is probably early fourteenth-century, but the arcades are early fifteenth-century, when the nave and south side were largely rebuilt. The north chapel and west tower were added later in the fifteenth century. Roofs of nave, chancel and porch are tiled; aisles and chapels are leaded.

Edmund of Langley’s fourteenth-century chest tomb — alabaster sides on a Purbeck plinth with carved shields — was moved from the Dominican friary in 1575 and, in 1878, into a new royal chapel formed by extending the north aisle; Queen Victoria gave the armorial east window. The same chapel holds the chest tomb and effigies of Sir Ralph Verney (d. 1528) and his wife Eleanor. A hexagonal early seventeenth-century oak pulpit with tester survives. The church is in the Diocese of St Albans and the Benefice of Langelei.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1100442
• RCHME: King’s Langley
• All Saints, Kings Langley