Details
TL 3533 BUCKLAND BURY WEIR LANE
(West side)
Buckland
5/36 Church of St. Andrew
22.2.67 (C of E)
(Redundant Churches Fund)
GV II*
Parish church. Chancel, nave and former S Lady Chapel C14 (Salmon in his
History of Hertfordshire 1725 recorded the inscription in a chancel
window 'Nicholai de Bakeland qui istanc Ecclesiam cum Capella Beatiae
Mariae construxit A o Domini 1348'), tower c.1400, S aisle and S porch
late C15. Restored 1848, 1875. N organ chamber/vestry added and porch
restored c.1880, exteriors of nave and aisle restored 1893. Flint rubble
walls with stone dressings, coursed facing to tower with some external
plaster remaining, uncoursed flints mixed with stone to nave and aisle,
knapped flint facing to porch. Steep red roofs of machine made tiles but
metal covering to S aisle and spire to pyramidial tiled tower roof. A
small church with tall narrow nave, chancel on different alignment, a
broad S aisle incorporating the lower part of the E and S walls of the
former Lady Chapel, large square tower embattled with diagonal
buttresses, and C15 S porch. Blocked C15 N door, and W door in tower.
Chancel has C19 3-light E window in C15 style, 2 2-light C14 traceried
windows in S wall, a contemporary doorway between, a lowside window at
W end, and a string course at sill height of the upper windows continued
as a hood to the lower openings. Chancel arch with 2 chamfered orders
with moulded label. Jambs have tall attached shafts and rolls with
moulded bell capitals and renewed waterholding bases. Wide arch on N has
angel musicians as stops to hood mould and stencilled, pine-cased organ
central below. Vestry with fireplace, in space behind organ. 2-bay C19
plastered waggon roof with arch braced principals springing from stone
corbels, similar demi-principals springing from embattled wallplate and
moulded longitudinal ribs. Encaustic tile 'carpet' to raised step at E
end similar tiles among floor slabs. 3-bays nave with 3 2-light tall C14
traceried windows in N wall with head stops to hood moulds inside and
outside. C15 blocked N doorway with moulded 3-centred arch. It is under
a square head externally with a plain round-headed stoup on E side.
Corbels for rood loft contemporary with C14 windows and upper door from
former rood stair on S wall (lower door in S aisle but steps gone). 3
bay S arcade inserted C.1480 with carved angel W impost corbel to wider
W bay. Delicate moulded orders springing at mid-height from deeply
chamfered piers, with capitals only to inner order of each arch. Buried
in E respond is E jamb of earlier archway, matching the mouldings of the
chancel arch, opening into the former chapel or S transept. There is a
square blocked squint from the aisle in the later work here. 3 bay
plastered C19 waggon roof with moulded and embattled tie beams and
arched braced trusses on deeply moulded possibly original wallplates.
3-bays broad S aisle has trefoil piscina and string course below E
window both in the E bay, remaining from the C14 Lady Chapel. 3-light
C15 cinquefoil windows at E, W, and 2 in S wall. C15 S door with
external 4-centred arch of 2 moulded orders under a square head with
traceried spandrels. Medieval wooden door. Contemporary fine C15 almost
flat timber roof with heavy flat joists, moulded members as wallplates,
central purlin, principal and sub-principal cross-beams. Carved foliate
bosses along centre at junctions with cross-members. Sub-principals have
plain length next S wall for the wooden angels with wings displayed
normal in this area in C15 but now missing here. Dominating 3-stage
battlemented W tower with diagonal buttresses, moulded plinth and string
courses at each level. Tall tower arch of 3 orders, moulded to nave,
with caps and bases renewed. W door with moulded jambs, pointed arch and
grotesque label stops. W window of 2 cinquefoil lights and traceried
head renewed. Belfry windows of 2 traceried lights. S porch parapeted
with a 2-light small trefoil window in each side, diagonal buttresses,
depressed 3-centred arched entrance under a square head and a moulded
label with decayed head-stops. Small niche with cinquefoil arch over
entrance. Fittings: Barnack stone font roughly recut on moulded clunch
base; organ 1881 by Henry Jones of Fulham Rd London; drum type C19
panelled wooden pulpit with trefoil piercing on circular moulded fat
stone base; 4 C19 lettered and illuminated boards on N wall of nave with
Commandments, Creed and Lord's Prayer; 3 groups of brasses set on wall
behind the alter to Alice Botelet d. 1451, William Langley, rector,
d.1478, John Gyll d. 1499, with children. Wall monuments in S aisle in
white alabaster to Susan Clerke d. 1634 with epitaph, bust and small
Mannerist flanking figures; in tower John Clarke d.1772 signed by John
Richards of Bishopsgate, a big epitaph with bust above an asymmetrical
Rococo bellied cartouche with inscription; Edward Clerke d.1740 in
varied viened marbles with bracketed base, Doric aedicule, and cartouche
in a broken pediment, erected 1742; under W impost of arcade, Mary
Hutton Lloyd 1861 a refined Neo Classical marble tablet; at SW of
chancel William Anthony Michell 1819 by Chantrey in white marble, tablet
with portrait roundel in low relief and Greek gable pediment crowned by
anthemion. There are stained glass remains of C14 canopy work in 2 N
windows of nave. A dated medieval village church on a hilltop site, of
exceptional architectural and historical importance. (RCHM (1911) 73-4:
VCH (1914) 46-8: Kelly (1914)73-4: Pevsner (1977) 116-17).
Listing NGR: TL3584433857
