Parish Church of St Mary

Details

BUCKDEN CHURCH STREET TL 1867 (NORTH SIDE) 5/1 PARISH CHURCH 14. 5.59 OF ST. MARY GV I Parish church largely rebuilt between 1436-49 by Bishop Alnwick. The tower, early C15 is asymmetric to main building axis perhaps due to the intention of widening the church later. Earliest features are C13 south facing doorway, not in situ, the piscenae, and sedilia in chancel. C15 roofs repaired in 1649 and 1665 and marked by dated wall plate and boss. North vestry and organ chamber built in 1833. Roofs restored in 1937, dated timber. Walls in limestone rubble with pebbles and ironstone dressings of Barnack limestone and freestone. Roofs covered in lead. South facing facade; west tower of three stages with moulded plinth and embattled parapet has four carved gargoyles with grotesque faces on the parapet string course. Transomed belfrey windows of paired trefoiled lights and quatre-foil in a four-centred head. Clerestory of five bays, and south aisle, have embattled parapets with windows of three cinque foiled lights in four-centred heads with moulded labels. Two storey south porch with quatre-foil panels above a moulded plinth, and carved animals on string of embattled parapet. Very fine outer archway, with crockets and finialed label with angel stops. Window to upper room has similar label to three cinque-foil lights. Vault of clunch with carved boss of the Assumption of the Virgin at its intersection. Chancel has three, three-light transomed windows and a late C13 doorway. Interior; the roofs of chancel, nave, north and south aisle all C15 but restored in C17, have very fine moulded beams, carved bosses at their intersections angel figures with outstretched wings, and carved figures against wall posts of south aisle. C17 carved panels, and roof truss inserted into central bay of nave roof resting on fluted capitals. C15 oak doors to south doorway, and both entrances to room above porch. North and south arcades of five hays, and tower and chancel arches all C15 and two-centred. Late C15 glass fragments in south aisle windows. C16 carved panels of the Passion, Flemish, incorporated into modern reading desks. Restored, carved C17 pulpit. C15 font with octagonal bowl and quatre-foil panels. Wall monuments of note. Bishop Thomas Barlow 1691, of freestone and black marble; Bishop Green 1779, roundel with reading female figure; Bishop George Pelham 1827 by E H Baily, R.A. (1788-1867), white marble figure of kneeling woman; Robert S H Whitworth 1831, by T Rickman, architect, marble Gothic triptych. RCHM - Huntingdonshire, p33 Pevsner - Buildings of England, pp214, 215 Gunnis - Dictionary of British Sculptors, p35 V. C. H. - Huntingdonshire, p268 S B Edgington, transcriptions of Church Warden Accounts C.R.O. Inskip-Ladds Collection. Norris Museum, St Ives

Listing NGR: TL1927067660

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

54272

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Inventory of Huntingdonshire, (1926), 33
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, (1954), 214-215
Page, W, Proby, G, The Victoria History of the County of Huntingdon, (1936), 268
Gunnis, R, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, (1953), 35

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