St. Mary the Virgin, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire

Description

The parish church of St. Mary the Virgin, which dates from about 1215, is an ancient edifice of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, with Lady chapel, nave, aisles, north porch and a western tower containing 8 bells and a clock: the upper part of the tower has Early English arcading: there are two piscinae in the church, and a third in the Lady chapel; the font is of very earliest first-pointed work, with Romanesque features: there is a monument in black marble and alabaster, in the Classic or Renaissance style, to the memory of Sir Richard Beke, of Haddenham, ob, 8 Jan. 1627: there is a brass, with effigy, to Thomas Nash, vicar 1428: the brass demi-effigy of another ecclesiastic, c. 1420, and an inscription only to Gylles Wodbryge and Elizabeth, his wife, both ob. 3 Aug. year not given, but early 16th century: on the south wall of the chancel is a marble monument to John Marriott M.A. ob. 1716, and members of his family: the silver paten and chalice, dated 1707, were his gift: suspended in the Lady chapel is an Elizabethan helmet which shows traces of having been richly gilded; in 1929 the roof of the north and south aisles were restored with oak and the interior of the western tower was reconstructed for use as a choir vestry: in 1935 a set of new hangings for the altar and sanctuary was presented by parishioners, and in the course of other renovations an ancient oak communion table dated 1707 was discovered and restored to its former use: behind this is a large recess known as an Easter Sepulchre, one of the very few to be seen in this country: the east window in the Lady chapel was restored in 1928 in memory of the men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18. There are 350 sittings.

Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1603.