St. Mary, Chesham, Buckinghamshire
Description
The parish church of St. Mary is a cruciform building chiefly in the Early English and Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch with parvise, transepts and a central embattled tower with octagonal spire, containing a clock, with Cambridge quarter chimes, 6 bells recast in 1812, and a sanctus bell, hung in 1370 and rehung in 1790; the curfew is regularly rung from the first Sunday after New Michaelmas day until the Saturday evening immediately preceding March 10: the earliest existing portion is perhaps, a portion of the north transept, retaining half a Norman window, the lower stage of the tower, the arcades of the nave and a lancet in the north aisle are Early English, the Decorated porch has a grained roof and upon it a parvise, reached by a turret stair from the south aisle, and also retains a stoup; the chancel is also of this period, but the clerestory and many of the windows are Perpendicular: the south transept was formerly the burial place of the Cavendishes of Latimer, and contains a monument to Sir John Cavendish K.B. a younger son of the first Earl of Devonshire, 1618, and an altar tomb with a lofty pyramidal structure above to Mary (Banks), wife of Sir Francis Whichcote bart. 1728: on the north side of the chancel is a monument, witb effigy in the act of preaching, to Richard Woodcock, a former vicar, 1623; and one to Richard Bowle, 1626; the two latter were restored in 1887 at a very considerable cost by William Lowndes esq.: in the chancel are memorlals to Nicholas Skottowe, 1798, by Bacon, and several inscribed stones to members of tbe Lowndes family: in the north transept is a brass, inscribed to George, son of Major William Wade, 1738; a brass is also recorded to the family of Eggerley: the entire building was restored in 1869; the external walls were partly refaced, and in doing this many fragments of worked stone, proving the Norman character of the building, were met with; the area of the north aisle was enlarged and the nave roof cased in the Perpendicular style; those of the south aisle and transepts restored and a new roof of the original pitch placed on the chancel: the new font, in the Early English style, was the gift of William Lowndes esq. of the Bury, and the lectern that of the Misses Sutthery; the organ, erected in 1852, was enlarged and improved in 1869; the stained east window was presented by the 9th Duke of Bedford K.G. others by the Misses Nash and Mrs. Lowndes; there are memorial windows to Mrs. Morton, Miss Aylward, Richard Clare and Mary his wife, the Rev. A. F. Aylward, 25 years vicar of Chesham, who fell a victim to a terrible epidemic of fever in the parish, Nov. 12, 1871, while visiting his parishioners, and to William Lowndes esq. of The Bury: a mural brass, erected by the poor of the parish, has been placed above the prayer desk: during the restoration several ancient paintings were discovered on the north and south walls and on the northwest pier of the tower, one of these being a colossal figure of St. Christopher: in 1898 an oak lobby was erected in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria: there are 800 sittings.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1538