St Mary's Church, Chesham

The western end of the nave, with its 15th-century Perpendicular great window and door

In the 15th century the clerestory was added to the nave, along with the Perpendicular two-storied south porch; these reconstruction works necessitated the repositioning of the door on the south aisle, and the building of the present-day western wall of the nave, with a great window and door also in the Perpendicular style.[21] Stained glass windows were installed in the clerestory, but their contents were not recorded, and only small fragments of the mediaeval glass survive today: the arms of the Cheyne family,[note 7] a human figure, and a shield with fragments of coloured glass, possibly the impaled arms of Woburn and Leicester.[24] A staircase in the porch led to a parvise above; local tradition holds that Thomas Harding was held in the parvise prior to his execution in 1532.[25][26] The porch also contains a stoup dating from the late 14th century, which although much damaged has survived all subsequent restorations and remodellings unaltered.[27]

While the stone tower was completed in the 15th century, the date of the spire is unknown and has been dated to periods ranging from the 16th to 18th centuries.[21] The church is known to have possessed a ring of bells by the 16th century, as the 1552 inventory of church possessions carried out on the instructions of Edward VI lists "v bells in the stepill".[28] A bell cast in around 1450 by John Sturdy is still used as a Sanctus bell and is regarded as having national historic significance.[28][29][30]

The interior of St. Mary's following the addition of the three galleries

In the chaotic climate of religious upheaval during and following the Reformation of the 16th century many of England's churches fell into disrepair, including St. Mary's;[28] the great door of St. Mary's was damaged during the Civil War and bullet holes from the conflict remain visible today.[31] In 1606 it was decided to renovate St. Mary's. Two of the bells were re-cast, the pews were replaced, and "a fair new gallery" was built along the south aisle.[28] In the 18th century two further galleries were added to the church; a north gallery reserved for the exclusive use of "maids and maidservants", and a west gallery for the use of St. Mary's band of musicians and choristers,[32] later used to house the church's organ.[33] The wooden communion table was sold for 3s and a new table added at a cost of 10s 6d (about £128 as of 2023).[27][34][note 8]

Since the widening of the tower arches in 1270 and 1320 the tower of St. Mary's had been structurally weak. The subsequent addition of the bells and belfry and the lead-covered spire added to the weight of the tower, and the number of burials of local notables within the church and of parishioners immediately outside the church building weakened the structure further.[35] By the 18th century the problems had become severe enough that the west arch of the south transept was blocked up in an effort the strengthen the structure,[35] and a hollow pillar which housed the stairway to the rood loft was filled in.[35] The tower continued to weaken, a situation made worse by the addition in 1812 of a new ring of six bells with a 17 cwt (860 kg) tenor bell, cast by Thomas Mears II of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.[29][35] Iron bands were wrapped around the tower to strengthen it but these soon snapped, and by the 19th century large cracks, which had appeared in the tower, were filled with broken bricks and rubble and covered over with roughcast as an interim solution.[35]

St. Mary's Chesham, 1838, prior to Scott's 19th-century reconstruction

By 1867, church authorities deemed the problems with the tower as severe enough to warrant a major reconstruction of the church.[35] George Gilbert Scott, who had recently designed the monumental London buildings of the Foreign Office and St. Pancras Station, was chosen to lead the project.[20][33] Scott was a leading advocate of the Gothic Revival and saw the renovation as a chance to return St. Mary's to a state nearer to its earlier Gothic design.[33]

St. Mary's as it appears following Scott's remodelling of the exterior

Scott removed the galleries, the high-sided 1606 pews,[note 9] and the three-tiered pulpit.[33] The tower was strengthened,[33] the building's exterior facing of flint and limestone was restored,[33] and the chancel, which had been remodelled in the late 17th century,[32] was restored to its original shape and given a new east window in the Decorated Gothic style,[33] containing Ward and Hughes glass depicting Faith, Hope and Charity, donated by the Duke of Bedford.[36] New wooden pews were installed together with a Gothic style pulpit,[33] and a font of Mansfield Woodhouse stone donated by the Lowndes family.[37]

The north transept, which had previously served as a vestry from which the Poor Law was administered,[38] was used to house the church's William Hill & Son organ, which had been installed in 1852 in the now-removed western gallery;[33] the south transept, which up to that date had been used as a mausoleum for the Cavendish family and was completely walled off from the rest of the church and accessible only via its own door from the churchyard,[39] was opened up to the church.[38] In 1890 Cambridge Chimes were added to the tower clock, in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.[24]

Scott's alterations proved successful in stabilising the tower and in serving the needs of the church, and the church remained little changed for the next 130 years;[40] the most notable alterations during this period were the replacement of the glass in the chancel's two leper windows with stained glass images of Pre-Raphaelite knights by Edward Burne-Jones as a memorial to a young officer killed during the Boer War,[27][41][note 10] and the painting of a mural over the chancel arch by John Ward depicting the events of Holy Week in modern dress and set in the Chilterns.[42] In 1951 the church was Grade A listed.[43]

In 1980 the fourth bell of the ring of six was recast, again by the Whitechapel Foundry.[29] By the 1990s the internal design of the church was beginning to be considered impractical for the needs of the community, and the interior was remodelled to a design by Robert Potter, with the works carried out in 1999.[40] The west gallery was restored to house the 1852 organ, together with a kitchen and toilet facility, and the north transept was converted into a vestry with a room above it.[40] Underfloor heating was built below a new marble floor and the chancel step replaced by an ovoid raised marble dais.[40] Meanwhile, Scott's pews were removed altogether and replaced by wooden chairs.[40]

In 1504 the will of Robert Wedon bequeathed funds for a chaplain, provided that he could "organise" and "sing well".[51] No other reference to an organ at St. Mary's exists until the installation of the William Hill & Son organ in 1852 in the west gallery. In 1869 the organ was moved to the north transept during Scott's renovation of the church, and at this time its volume and power were increased.[51] In Potter's 1999 remodelling of the church the pipes of the organ were moved to the new west gallery and electronically enhanced, and the console installed at the eastern end of the north aisle.[51]

The south transept had historically served as the mausoleum for the Cavendish family, who resided at nearby Latimer.[39] During Scott's renovations of the 1860s the transept was opened up to the church and remodelled, and only one Cavendish tomb survives today,[44] that of John Cavendish, son of William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire, who had died in 1617 aged 11.[39] Sculpted by John Bolt the Elder of London, the tomb features ornately carved strapwork above a sarcophagus, flanked by black coupled columns supporting small obelisks, and topped by a double-curved roof.[39] The south transept also holds the 1726 pyramid-shaped tomb of Lady Mary Whichcote, wife of Sir Francis Whichcote who at that time owned Chesham Leicester;[38][44] Mary Whichcote's elaborate funeral bankrupted Sir Francis, leading to his sale of Chesham Leicester to the Skottowe family.[38]

St. Mary's Church

Richard Bowle (c. 1549 – 13 December 1626), who had recorded and audited the restoration project of 1606,[28] is commemorated by a black marble monument on the north side of the chancel, noting his "faithful service of divers great lords", and that "part of" him "lyeth here".[52][note 12]

On the north wall of the sanctuary is a large memorial to Richard Woodcock, who had served as vicar of both Chesham Woburn and Chesham Leicester from 1607 to 1623.[48] Topped by a large painted bust of Woodcock holding a book, a lengthy gilded inscription in Latin and English describes Woodcock as "Hæreticorum Malleus" ("The hammer of heretics").[53] Woodcock had been a popular local figure, and at his death the parishioners had taken it in turns to carry the coffin to the church.[53] Near the memorial to Woodcock is a memorial to Nicholas Skottowe erected in 1800. This takes the form of a stone sculpture of a mourning woman kneeling over a sarcophagus, and was described by Pevsner as "[an] interpretation of remarkable tenderness".[23]

During Scott's renovations of the 1860s, all burials within the church itself were removed.[38] However, during the 1999 renovation, a vault was uncovered near the crossing. The vault was marked by a brass plaque inscribed "The Family Vault of Robert Ward", and was found to contain the coffins of Catherine Julia Ward, wife of novelist and Tory politician Robert Plumer Ward, and of their three-year-old son Charles Robert Ward.[38] The vault has been resealed and remains in place.[54]

Adolphus Aylward, the vicar from 1847 to 1872 and overseer of the parish restructuring, is commemorated by a brass plaque on the south-west pillar of the tower, and by a Clayton and Bell window in the north-west chancel.[38] Aylward's daughter Julia had died in 1862 aged 15 and is buried in the churchyard;[50] her grave was planted with snowdrops at her mother's request, which still bloom each spring.[50] Julia Aylward is also commemorated by a piece of Burlison and Grylls glass in the lancet window at the west end of the north aisle.[50]

Thomas Harding memorial

A memorial to Lollard martyr Thomas Harding stands in the churchyard near the south chancel,[42] erected in 1907 by the Protestant Alliance.[55] The base of the cross is inscribed:

To the glory of God and to the memory of Thomas Harding Martyr of Dungrove Chesham
Who in fiery trial at the stake laid down his life for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ in this parish on May 30, 1532
"The noble army of martyrs praise thee"
"God grant to us all grace to ken well and to kepe well holie writ and to suffer joiefulli some pain for it at the laste."
"None of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself."

Harding was executed at nearby White Hill and is believed to have been held in St. Mary's parvise prior to his execution. Foxe's Book of Martyrs describes the execution thus:

In 1532, Thomas Harding, who with his wife, had been accused of heresy, was brought before the Bishop of Lincoln, and condemned for denying the real presence in the Sacrament. He was then chained to a stake, erected for the purpose, at Chesham in the Dell, near Botely; and when they had set fire to the fagots, one of the spectators dashed out his brains with a billet. The priests told the people that whoever brought fagots to burn heretics would have an indulgence to commit sins for forty days.[56]

Near the memorial to Harding by the chancel door is a worn gravestone depicting a teacher and a group of children, believed to be the grave of Daniel King, teacher in Chesham's first Sunday School.[42]