User:AnemoneProjectors/List of places of worship in Stevenage



Stevenage has an active network of Christian churches of many denominations. Many of the churches work together for town-wide projects under the banner of "Churches Together in Stevenage". Stevenage also has a mosque. Alongside "Churches Together in Stevenage", Stevenage also has an "Interfaith Forum" dedicated to dialogue between different religious presences in the town.

Overview and history of Stevenage and its places of worship
The earliest settlement in Stevenage was on the site of the present St Nicholas' Church. It was likely established in the 7th century. The boundaries of Stevenage parish were defined at about 1100 and were unchanged for 850 years. Stevenage was in the Diocese of Lincoln. At this time, England was part of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. In the 16th century, protestant groups emerged, and catholics and protestants persecuted each other. There was religious upheaval during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I, from Henry's break with Rome in 1535 to Mary's death in 1558. Stevenage had as its rector at this time the Reverend Thomas Alleyne. The Church of England (Anglican Church) emerged from these tumultuous years. Alleyne was a protestant, and Stevenage was probably protestant in its outlook, as much of Hertfordshire was at this time. Stevenage became part of the Diocese of London.

As Stevenage expanded in the 1850s, a new church was needed as the population reached 2118. In 1861, a chapel-of-ease, the Holy Trinity Church, was built for the residents of new roads in the south of Stevenage who objected to the long walk to St Nicholas' Church, especially as they would often find the church was full. When the church opened, it was almost immediately too small for its congregation, so it was expanded in 1881. In 1877, Stevenage was placed in the newly created Diocese of St Albans.

The village of Shephall, which was historically separate from Stevenage, had a small wooden church, St Mary's, built in the 12th century, as a daughter to the larger church in nearby Aston. Aston was briefly held by Reading Abbey and the church in Shephall was included in that holding. Records from a Reading Abbey charter in 1151 show that the pastor of Aston was also the incumbent of the parish of Shephall. The Prior of Reading Abbey and the Abbot of St Albans later came to an agreement to transfer the church in Shephall to the jurisdiction of St Albans. The church was confirmed to the monastery of St Alban by Pope Honorius III in 1218. St Mary's Church was transferred to the Diocese of London in 1550, the Diocese of Rochester in 1845 and to the newly created Diocese of St Albans in 1877.

Stevenage was designated the first new town in 1946. Shephall was entirely engulfed and lost its separate identity, becoming a neighbourhood of the new town. Those concerned with the new town realised that new centres for people to meet were needed to create a sense of community, so several new churches would be built. In 1955, the Reverend Eric Cordingly became rector of Stevenage and led the development and reorganisation of the Church of England in Stevenage. Each neighbourhood of the town would have its own church building and priest-in-charge, and there would be one large, centrally-located church as the parish church for the town, St George's (later St Andrew and St George's), to which the title of rector would be attached. St George's took over from St Nicholas' as the civic church of the town. St Nicholas' and its daughter church, the Holy Trinity, became daughter churches of St George's.

There were then nine Anglican churches: St George's, St Andrew's, St Nicholas', Holy Trinity, St Mary's, St Hugh and St John's, St Peter's, All Saints and Christ the King.

In 1963, the Diocese of St Albans decided that St Andrew's Church was surplus to requirement. St George's took over the parish of Bedwell in Stevenage, where St Andrew's Church was located, and the congregation of St Andrew's joined that of St George's. This caused much unhappiness and annoyance for many years, as many of the congregation from St Andrew's had become emotionally attached to it. In 1970, the ecclesiastical parish of Stevenage was divided into seven parishes, each with its own church and vicar (though St George's retained the title of rector), so St Nicholas' regained its parish church status. St George's Church then became responsible for the Bedwell neighbourhood area, the town centre and the Gunnels Wood Industrial Area.

St George's Church was redesignated St Andrew and St George's in 1984, finally appeasing those upset by the closure of St Andrew's, and the old St Andrew's building was demolished in 1993.

Administration
The eight Anglican churches in the borough are administered by the Deanery of Stevenage. This is part of the Diocese of St Albans, whose seat is St Albans Cathedral. There are seven Anglican parishes in Stevenage; the parish of Holy Trinity, Stevenage includes two churches–Holy Trinity and Christ the King. The Deanery of Stevenage includes three other parishes: Graveley, Knebworth and Aston, which are in the neighbouring districts of North Hertfordshire and East Hertfordshire. Part of the district of North Hertfordshire is included in the Anglican parish of the Holy Trinity, while small parts of Stevenage borough are within the Anglican parishes of Aston and Datchworth, the latter of which is in the Deanery of Welwyn Hatfield.

Buildings with listed status
In England, a building or structure is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. English Heritage, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of this department to administer the process. There are three grades of listing status. Grade I, the highest, is defined as being of "exceptional interest"; Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest, is used for "nationally important" buildings of "special interest".

Stevenage has two Grade I listed buildings, 10 Grade II* listed buildings and 114 Grade II listed buildings. Of these, four are churches, all Anglican. St Nicholas' Church was designated Grade I listed on 18 February 1948 and St Mary's Church was designated Grade II* listed on the same day. The Holy Trinity Church was designated Grade II listed on 30 September 1976 for the reason that "It is a vigorous High Victorian church by a well-known church architect and was extended in a sympathetic style in the 1880s" and "It contains a number of fixtures of interest". St Andrew and St George's Church was designated Grade II listed on 25 September 1998.