NORTH CRAWLEY: ST FIRMIN – the 15th-century screen, with images of prophets, saints and kings, is Buckinghamshire’s only such screen to remain complete
HITCHAM † St Mary
4m/6km W. of Slough
OS SU920825 GPS 51.5347N, 0.6750W
This small church has an admirable mixture of materials and styles, lending both texture and interest: much of it is flint, with a 16th-century brick tower and chalk and plaster nave. The chancel arch is Norman, and the chancel itself a 1330–40 rebuilding. The chancel windows retain much of their original glass, depicting the Nine Orders of Angels and the Four Evangelists. Good monuments and brasses; the whole set among trees in a well-kept churchyard surrounded by ancient tawny brick walls.
IBSTONE † St Nicholas
6m/10km W. of High Wycombe
OS SU756923 GPS 51.6248N, 0.9092W
This small, intriguing church is sited away from the main village, overlooking the beautiful Turville Valley. It is primitive, mainly 12th- and 13th-century, and has a Norman S. doorway, weather-boarded bell-turret and Perpendicular pulpit.
IVINGHOE † St Mary the Virgin
8m/13km E. of Aylesbury
OS SP945161 GPS 51.8362N, 0.6291W
A noble cruciform church, 13th–15th century, St Mary’s is set in a large churchyard. Particularly fine are the stiff-leaf capitals of the nave arcades, the carved Apostles on the roof wall-posts, and the poppyheads on the benches, which include a mermaid and some haunting Green Men.
LATHBURY † All Saints
3m/5km N. of Milton Keynes
OS SP874449 GPS 52.0964N, 0.7248W
Another dead-end place down by the Ouse just outside Newport Pagnell, All Saints church is dark and mysterious, with fragments of painting and robust carvings from its Norman past. Outside it is pleasantly embattled with a good stone texture.
LILLINGSTONE DAYRELL † St Nicholas
4m/6km N. of Buckingham
OS SP705398 GPS 52.0523N, 0.9729W
Reached by a long cart track, this interesting church has an 11th-century chancel and tower arches. The tower is 13th-century, as is the chancel which contains a curious Easter Sepulchre, Dayrell brasses, a Renaissance tomb chest, old tiles and a funeral pall of 1699.
LITTLE HAMPDEN
† dedication unknown
7m/12km S. of Aylesbury
OS SP860035 GPS 51.7241N, 0.7556W
Humble and withdrawn among a few cottages and scattered farms, its simple interior is decorated with 13th- to 15th-century wall-paintings, including the earliest St Christopher in England. It leaves a great impression of the medieval hamlet church. The timbered, two-storey N. porch is unique in Bucks. There is a tombstone by Eric Gill to his neighbour Mary Bernadette Nuttgens.
LITTLE KIMBLE † All Saints
4m/7km S. of Aylesbury
OS SP826064 GPS 51.7504N, 0.8041W
Small and undistinguished externally, with a little W. bell-turret, All Saints stands amidst beeches and greenery on the edge of Chequers park. Inside are to be found, artistically, the best wall-paintings in Bucks., including St Christopher, St James major, St George (a notable standing figure), St Lawrence, St Francis preaching to the birds (only two in England), St Clare, St Bernard, and assorted ecclesiastics, plus part of a Doom, and a life of St Margaret and St Catherine, all early 14th-century. There is also a square of Chertsey tiles under a mat in the chancel, with enchanting scenes from the life of King Mark of Cornwall and other Arthurian romances.
LITTLE MARLOW † St John Baptist
2m/3km N.E. of Marlow
OS SU874878 GPS 51.5825N, 0.7399W
St John Baptist is in a good Thames-side village at a dead end and consequently almost unspoiled. The church has the unusual feature of a triple-gabled E. elevation, reminiscent of Devonian or Cornish churches; and has a light, limewashed interior. The chancel shows good 13th-century detail; the S. aisle and chapel were ‘beautified’ by Sir Nicholas Ledewich, so the inscription on his tomb tells us, about 1430.
LITTLE MISSENDEN † St John Baptist
3m/4km W. of Amersham
OS SU920989 GPS 51.6821N, 0.6694W
The church stands by the manor house and a number of pleasant houses in the village. Externally it is very picturesque; of flint and brick with a dormer window in the nave roof. An exquisite E. window has three double-shafted lancets. The church is principally renowned for its series of 13th- and 15th-century wall-paintings, which include St Christopher, a vivid Martyrdom of St Catherine and a Crucifixion.
MONKS RISBOROUGH † St Dunstan
Adjoins Princes Risborough to N.
OS SP812044 GPS 51.7326N, 0.8246W
The general effect of this church is especially pleasing from the exterior, as it stands in a good churchyard with high hedges and trees and the old Rectory hard by. The main part of the structure is 15th-century; inside there are good things to see, such as the 12th-century font, 14th-century tower arch and brass, a somewhat reduced painted screen and remains of old glass.
NETHER WINCHENDON † St Nicholas
4m/6km N.E. of Thame
OS SP732122 GPS 51.8042N, 0.9388W
One of the most attractive church interiors in the county and entirely unspoiled, in a rural village setting, at the foot of a steep hill. The structure is medieval, but the atmosphere is of the 18th century, all lit by brass Jacobean candelabra, with gallery and high pews, hatchments, sentences and a Jacobean three-tier pulpit. Recent restorations to the nave floor, gallery stairs, pews and pulpit are sensitive and of fine quality. Notice an unusual modern memorial to Lieut-Colonel Francis Tyringham Higgins-Bernard, a 20th-century version of a medieval knight’s tomb.
NORTH CRAWLEY † St Firmin
6m/10km N.E. of Milton Keynes
OS SP926446 GPS 52.0924N, 0.6485W
An important medieval church, it was restored in the 18th century. The rebuilding of the chancel in the 13th century is recorded by a rare carved inscription outside the E. window. The nave has a S. arcade of c. 1200 with good carved capitals and a 14th-century N. arcade. The 15th-century screen is the only painted one to remain complete in the county; the figures on the panels are those of prophets, kings and saints.
NORTH MARSTON
† Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
6m/10km N. of Aylesbury
OS SP777227 GPS 51.8974N, 0.8721W
The church is associated with John Schorne,