Details
BUCKINGHAM
SP6933 CHURCH HILL
879-1/6/21 Church of St Peter and St Paul
13/10/52
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCH STREET
Church of Saints Peter and Paul)
GV I
Church. 1777-80. Repaired, remodelled and extended, with
addition of porch, chancel and chancel aisle, in late C13,
geometrical style by G Gilbert Scott 1862-66. Limestone
ashlar, copper roof to nave, graded slate roofs to porch,
chancel and chancel aisle. Chancel, N chancel aisle, aisled
nave, S porch and W tower.
3-bay chancel has 5-light window with sumptuous Geometrical
tracery: large circle to head filled with 7 sexfoiled circles,
central cinquefoil-headed light meeting circle, outer lights
grouped in sub arches with cinquefoiled circles to head,
Y-tracery and cinquefoils above trefoil-headed lights. Bottom
of lights is filled by square sunk panels containing letters
Alpha and Omega outermost, then Instruments of Passion and
Chi-Ro symbol, with arms of St Peter and St Paul to centre.
Foundation stone below inscribed THIS FOUNDATION STONE/ OF THE
CHANCEL ERECTED BY/ RICHARD PLANTAGENET CAMPBELL GRENVILLE/
THIRD DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM & CHANDOS/ WAS LAID BY/ CAROLINE
DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM & CHANDOS/ JULY 6TH 1865.
In gable above, the ducal arms in large sunk panel; foliated
gable cross. 2-light windows N and S with sexfoils to head,
those either side of central S window in foliated circles.
2-bay chancel aisle has 3-light E windows with encircled
quatrefoil and trefoils to head, and 2-light windows to N with
cinquefoil-headed lights and encircled cinquefoils to head. N
door has keel and roll-moulded head dying into sunk chamfered
jambs. 7-bay nave with aisles under one roof has 2 tiers of
windows: small paired lancets, then 2-light windows with
cinquefoiled circles to heads.
S door in porch has double-leaf doors with ornamental
wrought-iron hinges and 2 orders of shafts. Porch has doorway
with 3 orders of shafts, many- moulded head and low
double-leaf wrought-iron gates. Paired niches above doorway
with cusped heads and statues of St Peter and St Paul. 1-light
windows to E and W sides. 2-bay roof on stone wall shafts
bearing arch-braced collar trusses. Polygonal gallery stair
turret to left angle with nave; 1-light windows with cusped
heads, nailhead ornament to corbel table and gabled ridged
stone roof with foliage bosses to gables.
3-stage tower has C19 W door with 2 orders of shafts and
many-moulded head. Convex shield over door with Swan of
Buckingham in relief. C19 paired lancet windows above with big
nailhead ornament and blank quatrefoil to central spandrel. 2
tiers of similar, smaller windows to N and S sides. Cast-iron
clock faces to middle stage, 3-light bellchamber windows with
intersecting tracery and 4-centred heads, and corbel table of
arches on balls. Battlement parapet with crocketed pinnacles
to angles and recessed stone spire of octagonal plan with ball
finial and weathervane. Tower has diagonal offset buttresses
and deep hollow-chamfered string courses.
Church has chamfered plinth and offset buttresses to nave,
porch and chancel, those to nave and chancel with gabled tops.
Similar buttresses between each bay. Buttresses have bar
stop-chamfered angles, stiff leaf foliage carving to cornices
and foliage bosses to gables. Solid parapets to nave pierced
with quatrefoils and arcaded parapets to chancel and aisle;
crocketed pinnacles to gable end of chancel. Doors and windows
all have hoodmoulds with label stops of foliage and heads.
INTERIOR: chancel has 2-bay arcade with shafted piers to N
aisle, which houses organ chamber and vestry. Piscina with
keeled and roll mouldings and cusped head. 3-seat sedilia with
cinquefoil-headed arches on shafts with moulded bases and
capitals. Timber lierne vault with C20 polychrome decoration.
Vaulting springs from long wall shafts. Chancel arch has
attached shafts and nailhead ornament to moulded capitals and
dogtooth ornament to many-moulded head.
Nave has 7-bay arcades. Circular piers of black fossiliferous
marble alternating with limestone piers diagonally set, with
attached shafts to angles. Marble piers stand on chamfered
octagonal stone plinths and have moulded stone bases,
mid-rings and moulded capitals, which incorporate corbels with
pendant mouldings. Stone piers stand on octagonal chamfered
plinths and have moulded bases, mid-rings and capitals. Double
keel-moulded and chamfered arches.
C19 timber quadripartite vault with ridge ribs and foliage
bosses, springing from piers. Vault, probably of redwood, is
ingeniously fitted below original C18 roof, which has massive
timber trusses designed to give clearance to former elliptical
plaster vault. Ridge rib of timber vault undulates to clear
these trusses.
W gallery on octagonal fossiliferous marble piers, which have
moulded octagonal stone bases and capitals, chamfered and
keel-moulded arches dying into octagonal stilts, and
continuous hoodmould 6-panel, double-leaf doors to tower.
Re-used, hollow-chamfered stone doorway with Tudor-arched head
in tower leading to stair.
FITTINGS: oak reredos of 1904 by John Oldrid Scott with
painted panels of Nativity and angels. Prayer desks in Lady
Chapel incorporating late C15/early C16 pew ends from old
church with poppy heads and complex blank tracery panels.
Another pew end dated 1626 now part of reading desk with coat
of arms ans scrollwork. Oak pulpit on tapering stone base with
saints' heads in circular medallions and eagle book rest. Oak
lectern with similar medallions to sides of book slope and
support on lions feet with miniature buttresses. Splendid
early C18 brass chandelier with 2 tiers of 9 arms and globe
inscribed the GIFT OF BROWNE WILLIS ESQ member of
parliament/anno domini 1705; gilded dove on top. Charity board
with gilded frame dated 1685. Former altarpiece in gallery
presented by Marquis of Buckingham, oil on canvas, a copy of
Raphael's Transfiguration purchased in Italy. Hanoverian Royal
Arms to timber gallery front of carved and painted wood.
Stained-glass windows by Clayton and Bell, notably E window of
1877 depicting Te Deum.
MONUMENTS: marble and brass wall monuments of early-late C19.
HISTORICAL NOTE: church originally built to replace medieval
parish church at other end of Church Street. Tower is largely
unaltered. Nave is still structurally C18. Buttresses added
after 1862 when serious cracks appeared in walls; their
foundations were taken down 14ft to bedrock below medieval
castle motte, on which church was constructed. Church largely
paid for by Earl Temple of Stowe. Repairs and chancel paid for
by his descendant, the last Duke of Buckingham.
(Harrison J T: Historical Buckingham: Buckingham: 1909-:
48-51; The Victoria History of the Counties of England: A
History of Buckinghamshire: London: 1925-: 487; The Buildings
of England: Pevsner N: Buckinghamshire: London: 1960-: 73-4).
Listing NGR: SP6946833774
