A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



south aisle 7 ft. 6 in. wide, and a half-timbered north 

 porch. The narrow chancel arch appears to be the 

 only remaining architectural feature of a small 12th- 

 century church which consisted of a nave of the 

 same size and a chancel somewhat shorter than the 

 present ones. In the first half of the I3th century 

 the chancel was lengthened, but the side walls were 

 probably not rebuilt, and the south aisle was added in 

 the first quarter of the 1 4th century, and the large 

 north-east window of the nave probably dates from 

 the middle of the same century. In the 1 5th cen- 

 tury the nave walls were raised, and a low-pitched 

 roof put on, but the only clearstory windows appear 

 to be of much later date. The tower belongs to the 

 last half of the lyth century. 



The east window of the chancel is of three cinque- 

 foiled lights with trefoiled lights over, beneath a two- 

 centred head, and is of 15th-century date. The 

 north wall is without openings, but the south contains 

 two windows. That to the east is a 1 3th-century 

 lancet with a wide internal splay and external rebate, and 

 beneath it is a 13th-century piscina with a shouldered 

 head, and a drain in the sill of the recess. The 

 other window is square-headed, of two trefoiled lights, 

 the jambs being of 14th-century date, but the head of 

 the 1 5th. The mullions and jambs, both external and 

 internal, are moulded, the latter with a pointed bow- 

 tel. Between these windows is a very narrow door- 

 way with a chamfered three-centred head, probably of 

 the 1 5th century. The chancel arch is round-headed, 

 5 ft. 9 in. wide, of a single square order with a cham- 

 fered and beaded abacus, which is continued on the 

 west face up to the north wall of the nave. On 

 either side are two small roughly-cut squints, that on 

 the north side having a cinquefoiled head about mid- 

 way in the thickness of the wall. It has been blocked 

 with a thin brick wall of recent date, and the southern 

 squint is entirely built up on the west side. 



The north wall of the nave, which probably retains 

 in the lower part its 12th-century walling, has one 

 large 14th-century window near the east end, from 

 which the tracery has been removed and replaced by 

 a wooden frame. The north door is of 14th-century 

 date, with a continuous wave-mould in the jambs and 

 two-centred head. The porch is perhaps of the 1 5 th 

 century, with a low-pitched roof, which cuts into the 

 label of the doorway. It is entirely of timber con- 

 struction. The south arcade is of three bays with 

 octagonal piers, and moulded capitals and bases, the 

 latter very plain. The arches are two-centred, of two 

 chamfered orders, both chamfers having carefully de- 

 signed stops, those in the inner order taking the form of 

 heads of men or beasts, and the label of ogee section 

 has grotesque human heads for drips. The west win- 

 dow of the aisle is of late 15th-century date, with 

 three cinquefoiled lights under a three-centred arch. 

 The two clearstory windows are square-headed and 

 perfectly plain, probably 18th-century insertions, one 

 at the south-east to light the pulpit, the other at the 

 uorth-west to light a west gallery. The south aisle 

 has a 15th-century east window of two cinquefoiled 

 lights with tracery under a square head ; to the north 

 of it is a small image bracket. In the south wall the 

 eastern window is of two trefoiled lights with a 

 quatrefoil over of flowing tracery, c. 1325, and just 

 to the east of the south doorway is a single three- 



centred light of late date. West of the doorway is a 

 square-headed 1 5th-century window of two cinquefoiled 

 lights, and rather coarse detail. The south doorway 

 has a two-centred head of a single hollow-chamfered 

 order, and is of the date of the arcade. 



The east wall of the tower is of plastered brickwork, 

 and is carried on a pointed arch which springs on the 

 north from a chamfered respond with an engaged 

 shaft, and on the south from a complete pier of the same 

 detail, set a little to the west of the second column 

 of the south arcade, but to the north of its line. 

 It stands free on all sides, the wall which it carries 

 butting against the north face of the arcade, the label 

 of which is cut away from this point. The mouldings 

 of arch and pier are carefully worked in plaster on a 

 brick core, the details of the capitals being of the 

 Tuscan order, and above the arch is a moulded string 

 breaking up over the crown. The stair is on the 

 north side, being carried up from the first floor in an 

 octagonal turret at the north-east, finished with a 

 domed cap of brickwork. The windows of the belfry 

 stage are of two pointed lights under a round head 

 with a pierced spandrel, and there is a similar window 

 in the second story on the west. 



The chancel roof is underdrawn with a plaster 

 ceiling and covered with red tiles ; the nave roof is 

 plain work of I 5th-century date, and the aisle roof is 

 probably contemporary with it. In the chancel arch 

 are the marks of a screen, and also in the east respond 

 of the south arcade. 



The church has been abandoned since the building 

 of the new church, and is now in a deplorable condi- 

 tion. The nave roof is rotten and full of holes, the 

 walls cracked and sodden with rain, and the whole 

 building smothered in ivy, which has pushed its way 

 through the roofs and unglazed windows. A few 

 decaying pews remain in the nave, which is open to 

 any chance comer, and desecrated with the scribbled 

 names of trippers."* 



A few fittings taken from it are preserved in the 

 new church. The font is octagonal, of the 151)1 cen- 

 tury, with square panels on the bowl, the alternate 

 panels containing a rose, a leaf pattern, a blank shield, 

 and what seems to be the representation of a shrine 

 with a gabled top, on which is a cresting of trefoiled 

 arches, with a cross at either end. 



There is also a canopied tomb of Jacobean style to 

 three children of Edmund Brudenell, with a rhyming 

 inscription : 



Cruell death by mortal blades 



Hathe slaine foure of my Tender babes 



Whereof Mary Thomas and Dorothye 



Within this place there bodies lie 



But God which never man deceaved 



Hath their souls to him receaved 



This death to them is greatest gayne 



Increasinge their joy freeing them from payne 



O Dorathie my blessed childe 



Which lovingly lyved and dyed mild 



Thou wert my tenth even God's own choys 



In the exceedingly I did rejoyse 



Upon Good friday at night my doll depted 



Adew my sweet and most true hearted 



My bodye with thine I desyre should lye 



When God hath appointed me to dye 



la8 That uch an interesting building, 



with its beautiful south arcade, and long 

 history, should be left to its fate in this 



3 6 4 



manner is nothing less than a public dis- 

 grace to the parish. 



