Building record 0460000000 - LITTLE HAMPDEN CHURCH

Dimensions - Width 0457 Length 1158 cm
DEDICATION UNKNOWN. NAVE WITH CHANCEL, N PORCH HEIGHTENED INTO LITTLE TOWER. C12, ALTERED C15 WITH FINE C15 N PORCH - 2 STOREY, GABLED, TIMBER FRAMED. MUCH RESTORED C18 & C19. 1854 CHANCEL REBUILT BY E B LAMB (B1-5).
Grade I. Parish church. C12, altered C15, with C15 N. porch. Much restored C18 and C19. Render over flint with brick and stone dressings, tiled roofs. Nave, chancel, N. porch; small vestry at W. end of nave added 1932. W. end of nave has brick band course and 2-light window with Y tracery. 2 similar C18 windows to S., one in a blocked doorway. N. side has fine 2-storey C15 gabled porch, timber-framed with curved cross braces and rendered infill. Single louvred openings in upper storey; door in 2-centred chamfered wooden arch. Chancel has late C19 stone dressings: chamfered plinth, quoins, coped gable, shaped kneeler. C19 cusped lancets to N. and S.; Cl9 2-light traceried window to E.; narrow transomed lancet externally rebuilt C20, to right of N.side. Interior. Nave has good remains of early C13-C15 wall paintings: earliest series shows figures of saints in trefoil niches with scroll friezes above and below along E. wall, figures of St Peter and St Paul on N. wall, and tall elegant figure of St Christopher to left of N. door; painted head and hands of another figure above later chancel arch; other C14 and C15 figures include another St Christopher, St Michael weighing the Virgin and the Devil, a figure tortured by devils, and a dragon. C15-C16 nave roof with cambered tie beams and tall crown posts. Unmoulded 2-centred chancel arch. Piscina with band of carved foliage below label. Small carved stone relief figure in S. wall of chancel. Large stone altar slab with consecration crosses, C19 altar rails. Late C19 and C20 glass. Memorial tablet to Martha Hill 1731. Dedication of church unknown. RCHM I p. 162 Mon. 2 (B5).