MISSENDEN ABBEY

MISSENDEN ABBEY, HIGH STREET

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Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1124783
Date first listed:: 10-Mar-1983
List Entry Name:: MISSENDEN ABBEY
Statutory Address:: MISSENDEN ABBEY, HIGH STREET

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Date:: 2002-04-14
Reference:: IOE01/00070/04
Rights:: © Mrs Margaret I.G. Dixon. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1124783
Date first listed:: 10-Mar-1983
List Entry Name:: MISSENDEN ABBEY
Statutory Address 1:: MISSENDEN ABBEY, HIGH STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: MISSENDEN ABBEY, HIGH STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Buckinghamshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Great Missenden
National Grid Reference:: SP8975600994

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)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.