[Footnote 7:  Clutterbuck says it was erected between 1402 and 1427.]

Continuing our way up the market-place we pass the Town Hall or Court House on the right, an Italian structure dating from 1826, and the broad St. Peter’s Street opens before us, leading to the old church dedicated to that saint.  The church is one of three built by Abbot Ulsinus in Saxon times; the date of their foundation is very uncertain, but we may bear in mind that the first abbot, Willegod, ruled at the close of the eighth century, that Ulsinus was the sixth abbot, and that six others ruled during Pre-Norman times.  St. Peter’s Church, largely restored by Lord Grimthorpe, is therefore of great antiquity as a foundation; the present structure is chiefly late Perp. with a lofty E. tower carrying four pinnacles, the latter an addition by the restorer.  The position of the tower (elsewhere almost invariably W.) is explained by the fact that the old church was cruciform, and that when, at the beginning of last century, the extreme E. of the chancel and the transepts were found much dilapidated they were pulled down, the old tower thereby losing its central position.  Note the E. Perp. arches separating nave and aisles; the pulpit a good example of Belgian carving, and the old stained glass in windows of N. aisle; the stained glass in other windows is modern.  Concerning the brass to Roger Pemberton, Sheriff of Herts (d. 13th November, 1627), a story is told.  If the visitor passes out of the churchyard by the N.W. gate he will be vis-a-vis to the almshouses founded in 1627 on the W. side of what was then “St. Peter’s Street, Bowgate”.  Pemberton is said to have been shooting in the woods, to have shot a widow by accident, and to have founded these almshouses for widows, and endowed them with L30 per annum for ever as a salve to his conscience.  There is an iron arrow over the old brick gateway before the houses, which seems to countenance the story.  There were formerly many other brasses in the church, but the inscriptions on some of them must now be sought in the county histories.  A few, however, remain, e.g., one with shield of arms to Mrs. Elizabeth Wyndham (d. 1735).  In the N. aisle is the tomb of Edward Strong (d. 1723), “Master Mason” of St. Paul’s Cathedral; in the churchyard lies Dr. Nathaniel Cotton, the friend of Cowper (see page 180) (d. 1788).  Among those who fell in the battles of St. Albans (of which more will be said presently) and were buried in this church or graveyard were (1) Sir Bertin Entwysel, Kt., Baron of Brybeke in Normandy; (2) Ralph Babthorpe and Ralph his son, of an old Yorkshire family.  As a matter of fact a great number of the slain were buried here; Chauncy says “this Church and Churchyard was filled with the Bodies of those that were slain in the two battles fought in this town”.

The two other churches founded by Abbot Ulsinus are those of St. Stephen and St. Michael.