OS SP899513 GPS 52.1534N, 0.6873W
Awkwardly placed (from the tourist’s point of view) on the S. side of the Ouse, away from Olney and thus happily secluded, the church is of great interest. A Saxon origin is suggested by the odd proportions of its tall nave, though most of what we see is 13th-, 14th- and 15th-century. The principal features are the font, with figures of saints (14th-century), and the series of medieval monuments to the Reynes family, including the great rarity of two pairs of early 14th-century wooden effigies.
DINTON † St Peter and St Paul
4m/6km S.W. of Aylesbury
OS SP766110 GPS 51.7930N, 0.8895W
Late Perpendicular predominates here, with the exception of a celebrated Norman door with inscribed tympanum bearing a Tree of Life and beasts.
DORNEY † St James the Less
3m/4km W. of Slough
OS SU924790 GPS 51.5024N, 0.6688W
The church dreams away in a backwater beside the splendid timbered house of Dorney Court. With its Tudor brick tower and bits of every period of architecture before and since, from Norman times to a 19th-century window of King Charles the Martyr, everything is on an intimate and miniature scale. Note especially: the 12th-century font; W. gallery, 1634; S. porch, 1663; 15th-century stalls and base of screen brought from elsewhere; 17th-century communion rails and other woodwork; and the fine Garrard monument, 1607, by Nicholas Johnson, in the little N. chapel.
DUNTON † St Martin
4m/6km S.E. of Winslow
OS SP823243 GPS 51.9118N, 0.8038W
A church with hardly any village, St Martin’s is small and pleasantly unrestored. There are box pews and a W. gallery with texts and rectors’ and churchwardens’ names of the 18th century painted on the front. The ceiling shows a hint of medieval timbers above. Many Bucks. churches must have been like this 150 years ago.
EDLESBOROUGH † St Mary the Virgin
10m/16km E. of Aylesbury
OS SP970190 GPS 51.8617N, 0.5927W
Churches Conservation Trust
Below the Chiltern scarp and sited on a great mound, isolated and exposed to all the winds that blow across the vale, the church was horribly maltreated in the 19th century (plaster stripping inside, cement rendering out) but contains the most wonderful things – complete screen, stalls, pulpit and tester, and roofs of the 15th century; transverse arches in the aisles, and a series of exceptionally interesting brasses, as well as a complicated succession of medieval building periods.
FAWLEY † St Mary
3m/4km N. of Henley-on-Thames
OS SU753867 GPS 51.5743N, 0.9140W
In a scattered Chiltern hill-top village, the chancel of St Mary’s, rebuilt in 1748, contains fine woodwork thought to be by Grinling Gibbons: font, pulpit, stalls, rails and panelling – all were formerly in the chapel of Canons House, old Middlesex. There are two formidable mausolea in the churchyard and Piper stained glass.
FINGEST † St Bartholomew
6m/10km W. of High Wycombe
OS SU776911 GPS 51.6138N, 0.8796W
The mighty Norman tower, with unusual twin saddleback roof, dwarfs the rest of this well-known church, which is set in a delightful village nestling in the Chilterns.
GAYHURST † St Peter
6m/10km N. of Milton Keynes
OS SP846462 GPS 52.1082N, 0.7653W
A complete rebuilding in 1728 of a medieval church in the grounds of the great Elizabethan house nearby – designer unknown. The tower has urns at the corners, and a charming, airy little cupola in the centre. The sides of the nave are unusual, with a central pediment, pilaster and doorway. The interior is practically unaltered, with good plasterwork, pews, pulpit and panelling. There is a splendid monument to Speaker Wright and his son, variously attributed to Roubiliac and William Palmer.
GREAT LINFORD † St Andrew
2m/3km N. of Milton Keynes
OS SP850423 GPS 52.0728N, 0.7602W
Pleasantly situated, it is reached past a handsome manor house and a 17th-century range built as village school and almshouses, and is a happy blend of the early 18th century and Decorated Gothic. The alterations inside to accommodate an increasing congregation are understandable but regrettable. At least the changes resulted in the discovery of a 15th-century tiled floor, part of which can still be viewed beneath the modern one.
HADDENHAM † St Mary the Virgin
3m/4km N.E. of Thame
OS SP741080 GPS 51.7658N, 0.9267W
A good 13th-century and later church, it lies at the extreme end of one of the most remarkable and complicated villages in Bucks., where many of the houses and walls are largely composed of wichert – a hard, compressed chalk marl. The W. tower overlooking the green is a good Early English composition, and inside the spacious church, work of this date as well as of many other periods is found. Note the 15th-century glass in the N. transept window. A flat plaster ceiling of early 19th-century date tantalizingly hides a 14th-century timber roof. A rewarding mixture.
LITTLE MISSENDEN: ST JOHN BAPTIST – a wall-painting of the 13th century depicts St Christopher on the left and episodes from the life of St Catherine on the right
HANSLOPE † St James the Great
6m/10km N.W. of Milton Keynes
OS SP803467 GPS 52.1129N, 0.8274W
Set in a windy village on high ground, the steeple is seen for miles around and is the tallest in Bucks. With a Norman chancel, the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries are all represented here; the 15th-century N. aisle added great width to the body of the church. The spire was rebuilt to only two-thirds of its original height after being storm-damaged in 1804. Despite scraping, the interior has good fittings – pulpit, Royal Arms, hatchments, an unusual family pew and brasses.
HEDGERLEY † St Mary the Virgin
3m/4km S.E. of Beaconsfield
OS SU970873 GPS 51.5766N, 0.6006W
The best Victorian Gothic church in the county – by Benjamin Ferrey, 1852 – it is built of the local flint, with a little stone and conglomerate, and stands high on a grassy slope surrounded by trees. It is the third church on the site, and has some oddments from the older buildings: a medieval font with Jacobean cover; an old painting of the Commandments; some brasses; and a reputed piece of Charles I’s cloak.
LITTLE MISSENDEN: ST JOHN BAPTIST – the south chapel
HILLESDEN † All Saints
3m/4km S. of Buckingham
OS SP685287 GPS 51.9531N, 1.0036W
This is another of Buckinghamshire’s lovely