The Holy Trinity, Bledlow, Buckinghamshire

Description

The parish church of the Holy Trinity is an ancient structure of flint and stone, in the Transition Norman style with Decorated windows and clerestory added; it consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and a western tower containing 5 bells, four of which date back to 1865, the fifth having been recast in 1841: the inner doorway of the south porch is very fine, consisting of a pointed arch with small circular shafts of Early English date; on the right of this door there is an unusually large holy-water stoup; over the outer door is a dial and near the entrance the stone base of an ancient cross: the north aisle contains a canopied niche and a double piscina, and the south aisle has also a piscina and retains traces of two recessed tombs: in the chancel is a brass of a former vicar (1525) in Eucharistic vestments: the walls of the nave and aisles bear traces of some ancient paintings: the font and a doorway on the north side are Norman; the former has a large fluted basin and some elaborate carved work: there are tablets of the early part of the last century to members of the Blancks family: in 1919 stained windows were inserted: the church was restored in 1876 at a cost of £1,400, and again in 1909, when the tower was repaired and the bells were also quarter-turned and rehung; during the course of the work an aumbry was uncovered in the south aisle and on the south side of the chancel the tympanum of a Norman door: also some 13th century stained glass in the chancel, which was cleaned and re-leaded: a memorial window was erected in 1912 in the north aisle to the memory of the Roberts family, and there is another to the memory of the Rev. John William Cruikshank, vicar 1904-16; there are 211 sittings.

Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1592