AYLESBURY HUNDRED 



GREAT MISSENDEN 



MIIIINDIN AIIIY. 

 Ermine two ban wavy 

 table vjitk a croxier or 

 bendviiayt over all. 





Richard lived until 1552, but he seems to have sur- 

 rendered the grant shortly before, as in 1550 and 

 1551 Edward VI gave the site of the abbey to his 

 sister Princess Elizabeth for life. 1 " At the end of the 

 same reign it was granted to 

 the Duke of Northumber- 

 land," 1 who was, however, 

 executed in the same year 

 for his support of Lady Jane 

 Grey, and his lands forfeited. 1 " 

 Missenden Abbey then re- 

 mained in the possession of 

 the Crown until 1560, when 

 it was granted for thirty years 

 to Richard Hampden."' In 

 1574 the reversion of the 

 abbey lands was granted to 

 Robert Earl of Leicester, 1 " 

 who sold it in the same year 



to William Fleetwood. The latter died in 1594 and 

 was succeeded by his son Sir William," 7 to whom the 

 abbey was confirmed in 1612. John Fleetwood, son 

 of Sir William Fleetwood, inherited his father's 

 estates in 1 63 1, '"and died in 1639 leaving a son 

 William who was only aged 4^ years at his father's 

 death. In 1672 he became lord of the manor of 

 Great Missenden, in which the site of the monastery 

 presumably became absorbed. 



The house now called Missenden Abbey stands on 

 the site of the cloister of the monastic buildings, and 

 contains a good deal of old masonry. The church, 

 which stood to the north of the cloister, is completely 

 destroyed, and a kitchen garden now coven its site, 

 but the walls of the eastern range of claustral build- 

 ings are in large measure preserved, and the open 

 ijth-century roof which covered the dorter of the 

 canons is still in existence, and parts of it may be seen 

 in various bedrooms now occupying the upper story 

 of the east wing of the present house. Unfortunately 

 no mediaeval masonry details are visible, and though 

 the present kitchen must approximately occupy the 

 lite of the chapter house, no trace of the ancient 

 arrangement remains. The walls of the southern 

 range, which must have contained the frater, still 

 stand in part, as do probably those of the western 

 range, and the area of the cloister with its walks is 

 almost entirely filled in with additional buildings, the 

 corridors on the ground floor evidently following very 

 nearly the lines of the former south and west walks of 

 the mediaeval cloister. These corridors, with most of 

 the architectural features of the house, are in the 

 imitation gothic of the early I gth century, and have 

 a vaulted plaster ceiling, and the whole building has 

 evidently undergone many alterations, a 17th-century 

 picture of it which is preserved being now hardly 

 recognizable. To the east the ground rises steeply 

 towards the parish church, and at the foot of the 

 slope is the bed of the intermittent ' bourne,' which 

 supplied the monastic buildings. The boundary 

 wall of the garden on the north it in part old, and 

 may be part of the mediaeval precinct wall, the 

 stream being carried under it through a low arch. 

 In a summer-house are prcservad some very pretty 

 piece* of 13th-century detail, doubtless from the 



monastic church, and a green glazed tile with raised 

 patterns, also of the 1 3th century, has been dug up 

 on the site of the church. 



The church of ST. PETER AND 

 CHURCH ST. PAUL has a chancel 3 1 ft. 3 in. by 

 igft., a nave 58ft. Sin. by 19 ft. ; 

 north and south transept 2 1 ft. by 15 ft. ; a north 

 aisle 1 7 ft. 8 in. wide, a south aisle 8 ft. wide, a 

 western tower, north and south porches, an organ 

 chamber and a vestry. The church was largely 

 rebuilt in the first half of the 1 4th century, the 

 chancel being widened to its present lines, the chancel 

 arch inserted, the aisles and transepts added, and the 

 tower begun but perhaps not finished. In the ijth 

 century the clearstory and roof were added and a 

 number of windows inserted. About the middle of 

 the 1 6th century the tower was enlarged on the 

 south side, evidently to make more room for bells. 

 The lower part of the addition cont.iins a stair, and 

 it seems that the parish must have obtained the bells 

 of the suppressed abbey which stood close by on the 

 west. Of the four belfry lights three are of this 

 date, but the fourth, that to the west, is a mutilated 

 early 14th-century window which it is quite probable 

 formed part of the abbey buildings. The south 

 porch is a late addition. In recent years the north 

 aisle has been rebuilt and greatly widened, the old 

 material being re-used and the door and windows 

 reset, while a new north porch was added. The 

 organ chamber is also modern. 



The east window of the chancel has in a 14th- 

 century opening modern tracery of 15th-century 

 detail in five cinquefoiled lights with tracery over. 

 Externally the window is almost entirely modern, but 

 the internal jambs and rear arch are rich 14th-century 

 work, elaborately moulded with deep hollows, double 

 wave moulds, and ogees in two orders. The inner 

 order rests on mask-corbels, the outer upon slender 

 circular shafts with richly carved foliate capitals, and 

 circular moulded bases upon octagonal plinths, while 

 some of the hollow members of the rear arch are en- 

 riched with carving in a running floral design and with 

 four-leaved flowers. On either side are two highly 

 decorated image niches of 14th-century date with 

 moulded and shafted jambs and internal heads carved 

 into ribbed vaulting, while traces remain of spire-like 

 canopies. At the east end of the south wall is a 

 series of modern canopied niches, seven in number 

 and of 14th-century detail, which are said to have 

 been designed from fragments uncovered at this point 

 during the last restoration. Below is the cinquefoiled 

 head of a single late 14th-century window, forming a 

 niche now used as a credence, and west of this is the 

 blocked opening of what was once a squint from a 

 vestry. The vestry door, a little west of the altar 

 rails, is of 14th-century date, but was much repaired 

 and reset a little west of its old position at the recent 

 restoration. The arched opening to the organ 

 chamber is quite modern. At the east end of the 

 south wall is a large 14th-century window, with 

 moulded jambs and rear arch and with an internal 

 label, now filled with 18th-century tracery in five 

 uncusped lights. There is also a very gracefully 

 designed 14th-century piscina with a sharp trefoiled 



" P.t. 4 Edw. VI, ft. iii 5 5 Kdw. VI, 

 pt. iii, m. ji. 



" Pat. 7 Edw. VI, pt. riii. 

 G.E.C. Ctmflete Peerage. 



" Pat. 2 Eli*, pt. XT. 

 111 Pat. 1 6 Eliz pt. i, m. 5 ; Chan. 

 Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), ccmviii, 69. 



35' 



Ibid.j Pat. 10 Jai. I, pt. T, no. 7. 

 Chan. Inq. 

 99 | ibid, cccczci, 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), ccccbdv, 



ci, 88. 



