Description

TL 01 SW NETTLEDEN WITH NETTLEDEN
POTTEN END (South side)

3/218 Church of St. Lawrence
30.11.66

GV II*

Chapel of Ease to Pitstone Church (Bucks), a Parish Church since 1895.
C15 (c.1470 licence to consecrate altars), chancel and N wall of nave,
rebuilt by brick in 1811 for Earl of Bridgewater, probably by James
Wyatt who was then rebuilding Ashridge for the Earl. Restored 1887
(Kelly), roof reconstructed 1947-57. Flint rubble now roughcast to older
fabric, plum red brick to chancel and S side of nave. Brick buttresses
and embattled parapets to S side. Stone windows. Roofs low pitched and
concealed. A small unaisled church of chancel, nave, W tower, and N
porch. Brick buttresses with 2 offsets define 3-bays nave and lower and
narrower 2-bays square ended chancel. Small rectangular brick porch with
painted stone 4-centred entrance with cusped spandrels and square label.
Stone copings to porch battlements. Hollow moulded head to chamfered N
door with 'WW/1811' cut in RH jamb. Battened C19 oak door with reused
wrought iron foliate hinge plates. N side of nave has 2 3-light tall
stone Perp style windows to E of porch with traceried pointed heads,
hollow-moulded jambs inside and out, and cinquefoil lower lights. Some
reused C15 tracery, and windows copy 2 restored original windows in S
wall. Interior has C19 encaustic tiled flooring, wooden painted dado of
narrow trefoil-headed panels, 5½-bays open timber roof with wallposts
and straight braces to cranked tie-beams each with diagonally striped
painted roll-mouldings. Chamfered square oak pulpit on fat circular base
with vigorous carving in high relief presented by Lady Marion Alford in
memory of Rev G.S. Cautley (1887). C19 low wooden screen on lower
chancel step with 4 painted saints. Discreet upright oval bellied wall
tablet in frame to John Maccascree d.1713 and Ann his wife d.1714 on LH
side of chancel arch. Fine painted alabaster Jacobean wall monument on S
wall to Edmund Bressy d.1612 and Lucretia his wife d.1610 with black
marble Corinthian columns, 2 kneeling figures, small figures of children
below, and strapwork ornament to base corbel. 4-centred Gothick chancel
arch with hollow chamfered moulded caps to half-octagonal jamb shafts
similar to Wyatt's work at Ashridge. Chancel has stone floor and
plastered 4-centred ribbed vault. Jamb-shafts and hoodmoulds to inside
of the 2 windows in each wall with stained glass. Dado similar to nave.
2-light Perp style traceried windows in N and S walls with trefoil heads
and quatrefoil over. 3-light traceried E window. In chancel floor the
brass of a knight in armour, with shields of arms in corners of slab, to
George Cotton 1545. Monument on S wall to Robert Carke d.1841, Gothic
with clustered shafts framing panel with 4-centred head and cresting
above, erected by Earl and Countess of Bridgewater. 3-storeys W tower
with embattled parapet has diagonal W buttresses based on puddingstones,
cast iron rainwater head dated '1811' on E face, belfry openings of 2
trefoil lights with 4-centred heads, square headed C16 N and S windows
with low cills and 2 trefoil lights to ground stage (N window blocked
and with pins for internal shutters), C19 chamfered, pointed W door
inserted below 3-light C15 blocked W window with label and trefoil
lights under 4-centred head. York-stone offsets to buttresses. Vestry in
base of tower. C14 stone coffin without lid outside W wall of tower.
(VCH (1908) 317-8: RCHM (1911) 155: Kelly (1914) 189: Pevsner (1977)
258: inf Mrs. Jean Simpson).

Listing NGR: TL0200310476

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17542487

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments