Missenden Abbey

Details

In the entry for;

SP 80 SE & SP 8901 GREAT MISSENDEN HIGH STREET
(east side)
1/49 4/49
Missenden Abbey
10.3.83


GV I


The entry shall be amended to read:

SP 80 SE & SP 8901,

1/49, 4/49

GREAT MISSENDEN,
HIGH STREET (east side),
Missenden Abbey

10.03.83

GV

II

Former country house incorporating fabric of an Augustinian abbey plus
late phases of remodelling; now in use as a management & adult
education centre. Abbey founded c1133 by William de Missenden; various
phases of building until the Dissolution when leased as a country
house in 1541; C16, C17 & C18 remodelling; c1806 remodelled & enlarged
in Regency Gothic style for John Ayton, architect unknown; 1985
following a fire which gutted the building, interior remodelled with
several rooms reconstructed. Medieval fabric remains incorporated in
south & east walls & fabric incorporated in the interior.
Externally, all of early C19, restored following the fire with render,
channelled to appear as ashlar. Slate roofs behind castellated
parapets having string course at base. Rectangular plan with northern
projections. 2 storeys with first floor string course. Asymmetrical
western entrance front with 6 windows. Castellated porte-cochere to
left of centre with doorway converted to a window. Post 1985 entrance
to right with glazed porch.
Windows have Gothic or Tudor arched heads having hood-moulds and Y-
tracery or transoms & mullions. Buttresses, terminating in pinnacles
above the parapet, articulate bays. Right-hand angle octagonal tower,
with arrow-slit windows & domed roof surmounted by a cross, responds
to symmetrical south garden front with 3 central buttressed bays
having traceried Tudor arched windows, a 3-light oriel to first floor
central bay & parapet rising to form a pediment; ground floor outer
bays with traceried canted bay windows forming castellated balconies
to first floor windows. North & east fronts in similar but less
elaborate style.

INTERIOR completely remodelled c1985-88, by County
Architect, Paul Markcrow, including surviving fabric from previous
builds and reconstruction of some of the Regency Gothic plasterwork
in the garden room and dining room. Garden room, dining room and
lounge with good contemporary stained glass by David Pearl; surviving
medieval stained glass roundels, imported for Gothic rebuild,
incorporated in former western entrance.

HISTORY: Missenden Abbey was
the first Abbey to be founded in Bucks and the first or second
Arrouaisian house in England; it was dissolved in 1583. Before the
1985 fire the east range attic retained 5 arch-braced trusses with 2
tiers of curved wind braces being a rare C15 or early C16 survival of
the monk's dormitory; the south (frater ?) range had 1 similar truss
at the east end; all now destroyed.
RCHM I p173 MON.6.
Missenden Abbey - A short history by Elaine Kaye, 1992

------------------------------------


SP 80 SE & SP 8901 GREAT MISSENDEN HIGH STREET
1/49 4/49 (east side)

10.3.83 Missenden Abbey
GV
I


Found 1133 for Augustinian Canons. Monastic buildings adapted to a private house
probably by 1574. Altered and enlarged in the "Gothic" style 1806-14 for
John Ayton, Architect unknown. Important medieval fabric still extant inside house.
Externally all of early C19 date, cement faced and painted. Slate roofs behind
castellated parapets with string course at base. Two storeys, first floor string
course. Octagonal corner turrets with arrowslits, parapets, conical caps with cross
finials. Thin buttresses crowned with pinnacles defining centres of west and south
elevations. Gothic or Tudor arched heads with hoodmoulds and label stops to most
openings. West elevation has porte-cochere left of centre, 3-light traceried window
with stained glass in centre, 2-light windows each side, four 2-light Y tracery
windows to first floor. Lower north wing attached on left. South front is
symmetrical with parapet forming shallow central gable with pinnacle above, panelled
oriel window to first floor, traceried doorway below. Similar openings each side
and bay windows in outer bays. Four 3-light windows to first floor. North wing
irregular, incorporating parts of the medieval structure notably the present kitchen
which may be the Chapter House. Further traceried windows and projections with
arrowslit openings.
Interior: Richly decorated Gothic Revival interiors to entrance hall and corridor.
Dining room, garden, hall and staircase, library and lounge. Several windows
contain C16-18 Flemish or German stained glass roundels. East range attic contains
C15 or early C16 roof of monks dormitory (a rare survival nationally). Five
arch-braced trusses with hollow chamfered moulded timbers, two tiers of curved wind
braces. South range (frater?) has one similar truss at east end.
RCHM I p 173 MON.6


Listing NGR: SP8975600994

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

44875

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Kaye, E, Missenden Abbey A short history, (1992)

Other
An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Buckinghamshire Volume One South, (1912)

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