RISBOROUGH HUNDRED 



when the aisle was built. The internal jambs are 

 doubly shafted and have circular capitals and bases, 

 while the rear arch is elaborately moulded. There 

 are both internal and external labels, and the latter is 

 finished with mask drips just above a string-course in 

 which are worked two grotesque heads forming 

 secondary drips. The second window, also pre- 

 sumably re-used, is of later 14th-century date and 

 much restored ; it is of two trefoiled lights with two 

 trefoils and a quatrefoil over. The south door, 

 between these windows, is of early I 5th-century date, 

 continuously moulded in two double-ogee orders with 

 a hollow between. 



The south porch has in its north-east angle a 

 mutilated holy-water stone, with a rounded bowl 

 upon a short square stem. There are small cinquefoiled 

 lights in the east and west walls, and the outer arch- 

 way is of two hollow-chamfered orders with sunk 

 spandrels and an image niche over. 



The tower is of three stage;, with a plain parapet 

 and a large square south-east staircase turret. The 

 tower arch is of three continuous chamfered orders, 

 with an internal label which is continued as a string 

 to the north and south nave walls. The external 

 string between the first and second stages is carried 

 round the east wall of the turret, which now forms 

 part of the west wall of the south aisle, showing that 

 the turret stood free at this height in the first in- 

 stance. The belfry openings are of two cinquefoiled 

 lights with sharp two-centred heads. Below the 

 parapet is a corbel table, which is carried round the 

 stair turret which rises some feet above the tower. 

 The west door, of 14th-century date, has a two-centred 

 head of two richly-moulded orders, the inner of which 

 is continuous, while the mouldings of the outer die out 

 at the springing. The west window has modern 

 tracery of the same detail as the south-west window of 

 the south aisle. 



The font is of the local I 2th-century type, with a 

 circular scalloped bowl, moulded stem, and square base, 

 ornamented with conventional foliage. 



The chancel has a modern high-pitched tiled roof, 

 while those of the aisles, transept, and nave are of low 

 pitch and leaded. The last is of 1 5th-century date 

 with moulded principals, purlins, ridges, and wall- 

 brackets with cusped spandrel tracery, resting in some 

 cases upon grotesque stone corbels. The transept 

 roof is similar but perhaps earlier. The porch roof is 

 also of early 15th-century date, but is of steep pitch, 

 and a good deal of I ;th-century work is incorporated 

 in the aisle roofs. There is a much-restored rood- 

 screen in position, and on the jambs of the chancel 

 arch are faint traces of the coved soffit of the rood- 

 loft. The screen itself is of 15th-century date with 

 five wide arched bays, from the heads of which the 

 wooden vaulting has been removed, the spandrels 

 being filled in with modern tracery. The lower 

 panels are solid, and painted with figures of bearded 

 saints Wearing ermine-trimmed hats and tippets ; the 

 drawing and colour can only be called barbarous, and 

 they appear to be 1 8th-century repaintings of earlier 

 work. It is quite impossible to identify any of the 

 figures. There is a considerable quantity of 1 5th- 



MONKS 

 RISBOROUGH 



century work incorporated in the seating of the church, 

 four bench-ends in particular having well-designed 

 finials carved with figures standing or kneeling upon 

 two faces, back to back, or in one case upon two 

 pelicans. The oldest monument is the brass figure 

 of Robert Blundele, priest, 1431, in mass vestments, 

 and there is another brass of a civilian and his wife, 

 e. 1460, with two sons and five daughters. The 

 children, however, do not belong to the same monu- 

 ment as the two larger figures. In the eastern 

 window of the south aisle are some fragments of 1 4th 

 and 15th-century glass, the most perfect piece being 

 a small figure of our Lady and Child. There is also 

 some 15th-century glass in its original position in the 

 upper lights of one of the north windows of the 

 chancel. 



The tower contains six bells, the treble cast by 

 Warner & Sons in 1885, the second and fourth dated 

 1637, the third, fifth, and tenor dated 1636. They 

 are all by Ellis Knight of Reading. 



The church plate consists of a modern jewelled 

 chalice of mediaeval design, hall-marked for 1877 ; a 

 chalice inscribed as the gift of William Quarles in 

 1726, hall-marked for 171 o.and a salver, standing paten 

 and flagon similarly inscribed, the first hall-marked 

 for 1697, the second with no date-letter, and the 

 third with the date-letter for 1725. 



The first book of the registers contains all entries 

 from 1587 to 1802, except in the case of marriages, 

 which cease at 1754. There is also a recent and 

 beautifully-made copy of this book. Baptisms and 

 burials are continued in another book from 1803 to 

 1812, and marriages, after a gap, in a third from 

 1778 to 1812. 



The church of Monks Risborough 

 4DrOWSON was one of the two benefices belong- 

 ing to the deanery of Risborough, 

 within the exempt jurisdiction of the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury." The deanery was abolished in 1841 

 at the renewal of the rural deaneries, and the church 

 of Monks Risborough was assigned to Wendover 

 (first division). 7 * In 1865, however, it was again 

 transferred, and now belongs to the rural deanery of 

 Aylesbury." The church does not seem to have been 

 assigned with the manor to the monastery of Christ- 

 church, Canterbury, when the division of estates 

 between the archbishop and the monks took place.' 4 

 No vicarage was ordained, and the rectory was not 

 amongst the possessions of the monastery at its disso- 

 lution." The archbishop collated to the living, since 

 during the vacancy caused by Archbishop Morton'* 

 death, the Crown instituted a new rector in 1500." 

 His successors 78 collated to it until 1837, when with 

 the rest of Buckinghamshire, the ecclesiastical parish 

 of Monks Risborough was transferred to the diocese of 

 Oxford, and the Bishop of Oxford became patron of 

 the living. 79 



A chapel at Owlswick existed in the 1 4th century, 

 since in 1368 Robert Testyf was 'vicar of the church 

 of Olneswyk.' * Tithes were set apart for the chapel 

 by John Wakeman, rector of Monks Risborough, in 

 the 1 5th century." In 1631," and again during 

 the Commonwealth," there were difficulties as to the 



7* Dugdale, Mm. i, 89 ; falar Eccl. 

 (Rec. Com.), iv, 149. 



n V.C.H. Buck,, i, 344, 345. 



* Ibid. 



' Cf. manor of Monki Ritborougb. 



7 Valor Eccl. (Rcc. Com.), i, 18. 

 f Hut. MSS. Com. Rtf. ii, pt. i, 

 1090. 



'' P.R.O. Init. Bkt. 1671 1789. 

 " Lond. Gam. 30 May 



259 



80 Feet of F. Buck*, Bait, and Trin. 

 41 Edw. III. 



81 Lipicomb, Hiii. of Bucks, ii, 419. 

 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1631-3, p. 132. 

 " Exch. Com. Mich. 1656, no. 14. 



