Building record 0518300000 - Church of St Mary, Church Hill, Whaddon

Dimensions - Length 29m, Width 19m.
Plan Form - Cruciform.
Grade I. Parish church, C12, altered C14 and C16. Restored 1889, 1891, 1902 and 1906. Coursed rubble stone, lead roofs to nave and aisles, tiled roofs to chancel and N. chapel. W. tower, nave aisles, N. and S. porches, chancel and N, chapel. C14 W. tower of 2 stages has off-set buttresses, battlemented parapet with gargoyles, stair turret at S.E. corner, and 2-light traceried openings to bell-chamber. W. side has moulded arched door with 3-light Decorated window above, both with hoodmoulds and worn carved head stops, and cusped niche over. Nave, aisles and porches have plain parapets. C16 clerestory with 2-light window to N. 2 3-light windows to S. and 2 single lights to E, N. aisle has 2 2-light traceried windows, partly restored, and door in moulded arch with hood and carved head stops. S. aisle has similar door and 3-light window to E, and 2 3-light traceried windows,mostly C19, to S. C16 porches have 2-centred chamfered arches. Chancel has low-side window with cusped ogee head and transom, similarly arched small doorway, and C19 3-light window. E. windows of chancel and N. chapel are 3-light windows with ogee tracery, hood moulds and carved head stops, partly restored, N. wall of chapel has similar 2-light window. Interior : Triple chamfered tower arch on semi-octagonal piers with moulded caps, similar double chamfered chancel arch. Nave arcade of 3 bays has slightly chamfered Transitional arches on round piers with variously carved and moulded caps, partly restored. N. wall of nave has arch to chapel at E. end, S. wall has chamfered arch to chapel with one carved head corbel. Cusped ogee stoups to N. and S. doors. Chancel has double chamfered arch to chapel with caps on small carved heads. C19 aumbry in N. wall. Moulded trefoil-headed piscina, plain double sedilia with shaped armrest. N. Chapel has segmental arched recess, cusped piscina and C14 roof with arched braced collars and wind-braces. Fittings: C13 font, on 4 columns with strips of dogtooth ornament between. Painted wooden winch bracket with carved face above. Early C17 altar rails and communion table. Other fittings and glass C19-C20. Monuments: Purbeck marble tomb of Thomas Pigott, 2 wives and children 1519, with ornamental blind tracery to tomb chest, canopy on slender decorated shafts, and small brasses. Monument to Arthur, Lord Grey de Wilton 1593 with plain tomb chest and inscription above in surround of short fluted Ionic columns and cornice hood. Stone tablet of 1610 with brasses of Margaret Myssenden and skeleton. RCHM II p 318-321 (B6).
Surviving wall paintings include St Edmund, an unidentified bishop or abbot, the martyrdom of Thomas a Becket, three skeletons and a tree (B2).
Vicars 1220-1836 (B1).
Included in a collection of sketches of Buckinghamshire churches by Charlotte Pigott in the early 1840s (B7).

The Parish Church of St Mary is built of sandstone. The roofs are covered with lead, except those of the chancel and North chapel which are tiled. Part of the walls of the nave above the arcade may belong to a church built early in the C12th. A North aisle was added ca.1190, and the north wall of the nave pierced by an arcade of three bays, and a little later the nave and aisle were lengthened by about 6.5 feet towards the East, a small bay being added to the arcade. The South aisle was built ca.1200 with an arcade of three bays. Between 1340 and 1350, much work was done, beginning with the
rebuilding of the chancel, and the insertion of new windows and doorways in the aisles, the outer side walls of the aisles also probable being rebuilt. The North chapel was then built, the arcades rebuilt with old material and heightened, and the West tower was added, slightly reducing the length of the nave. Late in the C15th, or perhap early C16th, the North and South porches were added. The clerestory was built early in the C16th. The church was restored in 1889, 1891, the tower in 1902, and the nave in 1906. The church is interesting on account of the late C12th work in the North arcade, and that of ca.1200 in the South arcade. The Pigott tomb in the North chapel is also noteworthy (B4).