St Andrew's Church, Buckland
Encyclopedia
St Andrew's Church, Buckland, is a redundant
Anglican
church in the village of Buckland
, Hertfordshire
, England. It has been designated by English Heritage
as a Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust
. The church stands at the highest point in the village to the east of Ermine Street
, now the A10 road, between Royston
and Buntingford
.
and chancel
were built in about 1348. The tower was added in about 1400, and the south aisle
and south porch followed in the late 15th century. Restorations
took place in 1848 and 1875. In about 1880 a vestry
and organ chamber were added, and the exteriors of the nave and aisle were restored in 1893.
with stone dressings. The roofs are in red tiles. Its plan consists of a narrow three-bay
nave with a broad south aisle and a south porch, a two-bay chancel with a vestry and organ chamber to the north, and a large west tower. The tower is set on a moulded
plinth
. It is in three stages separated by string courses, with diagonal buttress
es, and a battlement
ed parapet
. In the bottom stage is a west doorway with a pointed arch, above which is a two-light window. The bell openings in the top stage have two lights. On the summit of the tower is a pyramidal spire. In the north wall of the nave are three two-light 14th-century windows and a 15th-century blocked doorway. The east window in the chancel has three lights dating from the 19th century in 15th-century style. In the south wall of the chancel are two two-light 14th-century windows, with a doorway from the same period between them. The south aisle has three-light 15th-century windows, two in the south wall, and one each in each of the east and west walls. The south porch has diagonal buttresses, and two-light windows on each side. Over the entrance arch is a niche
with a cinquefoil arch.
s. Between the nave and south aisle is a three-bay arcade
. The aisle has an almost flat timber roof dating from the 15th century, and contains bosses
with foliate carving. In the aisle is a piscina
with a trefoil
head. The chancel is floored with encaustic tile
s. Its north arch is decorated with carvings of angel musicians. The font
is made from Barnack
stone set on a clunch
base. The wooden pulpit
dates from the 19th century. Also from that century are four boards on the north wall of the nave with the Lord's Prayer
, the Ten Commandments
, and the Creed. There are three groups of brasses
on the wall behind the altar with dates in the second half of the 15th century. In the south wall of the aisle is a white alabaster
monument dated 1634. The tower contains two monuments dated in the 18th century. In the arcade is a marble
tablet in Neoclassical
style dated 1861, and in the southwest of the chancel is another marble tablet, this one by Chantrey, dated 1819. There is some medieval
stained glass in two of the windows in the nave. The single-manual
organ was built in 1870 by Henry Jones and Son.
Redundant church
A redundant church is a church building that is no longer required for regular public worship. The phrase is particularly used to refer to former Anglican buildings in the United Kingdom, but may refer to any disused church building around the world...
Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
church in the village of Buckland
Buckland, Hertfordshire
Buckland is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 285. The village is about 4½ miles south of Royston on the A10 road.-See also:...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England. It has been designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust
Churches Conservation Trust
The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was established by the Pastoral Measure of 1968...
. The church stands at the highest point in the village to the east of Ermine Street
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...
, now the A10 road, between Royston
Royston, Hertfordshire
Royston is a town and civil parish in the District of North Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England.It is situated on the Greenwich Meridian, which brushes the towns western boundary, and at the northernmost apex of the county on the same latitude of towns such as Milton Keynes and...
and Buntingford
Buntingford
Buntingford is a small market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies on the River Rib and on the Roman road Ermine Street. As a result of its location, it grew mainly as a staging post with many coaching inns and has an 18th...
.
History
The naveNave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
and chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
were built in about 1348. The tower was added in about 1400, and the south aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
and south porch followed in the late 15th century. Restorations
Victorian restoration
Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...
took place in 1848 and 1875. In about 1880 a vestry
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
and organ chamber were added, and the exteriors of the nave and aisle were restored in 1893.
Exterior
The church is constructed in flintFlint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
with stone dressings. The roofs are in red tiles. Its plan consists of a narrow three-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
nave with a broad south aisle and a south porch, a two-bay chancel with a vestry and organ chamber to the north, and a large west tower. The tower is set on a moulded
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...
. It is in three stages separated by string courses, with diagonal buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es, and a battlement
Battlement
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet , in which portions have been cut out at intervals to allow the discharge of arrows or other missiles. These cut-out portions form crenels...
ed parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
. In the bottom stage is a west doorway with a pointed arch, above which is a two-light window. The bell openings in the top stage have two lights. On the summit of the tower is a pyramidal spire. In the north wall of the nave are three two-light 14th-century windows and a 15th-century blocked doorway. The east window in the chancel has three lights dating from the 19th century in 15th-century style. In the south wall of the chancel are two two-light 14th-century windows, with a doorway from the same period between them. The south aisle has three-light 15th-century windows, two in the south wall, and one each in each of the east and west walls. The south porch has diagonal buttresses, and two-light windows on each side. Over the entrance arch is a niche
Niche (architecture)
A niche in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms that were given richly varied floor plans, shaped with niches and exedras;...
with a cinquefoil arch.
Interior
Both the nave and the chancel have 19th-century waggon roofBarrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design...
s. Between the nave and south aisle is a three-bay arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
. The aisle has an almost flat timber roof dating from the 15th century, and contains bosses
Boss (architecture)
In architecture, a boss is a knob or protrusion of stone or wood.Bosses can often be found in the ceilings of buildings, particularly at the intersection of a vault. In Gothic architecture, such roof bosses are often intricately carved with foliage, heraldic devices or other decorations...
with foliate carving. In the aisle is a piscina
Piscina
A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. Roman Catholics usually refer to the drain, and by extension, the basin, as the sacrarium...
with a trefoil
Trefoil
Trefoil is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings used in architecture and Christian symbolism...
head. The chancel is floored with encaustic tile
Encaustic tile
Encaustic tiles are ceramic tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze but of different colors of clay. They are usually of two colors but a tile may be composed of as many as six. The pattern is inlaid into the body of the tile, so that the design remains as...
s. Its north arch is decorated with carvings of angel musicians. The font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
is made from Barnack
Barnack
Barnack is a village and civil parish in the City of Peterborough unitary authority of Cambridgeshire, England. It is located in the north-west of the district, only four miles south-east from Stamford in Lincolnshire. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 851 people. Barnack's...
stone set on a clunch
Clunch
Clunch is a term for traditional building material used mainly in eastern England and Normandy. It is a term which encompasses a wide variety of materials, often locally variable....
base. The wooden pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
dates from the 19th century. Also from that century are four boards on the north wall of the nave with the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
, the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
, and the Creed. There are three groups of brasses
Monumental brass
Monumental brass is a species of engraved sepulchral memorial which in the early part of the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood...
on the wall behind the altar with dates in the second half of the 15th century. In the south wall of the aisle is a white alabaster
Alabaster
Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals, when used as a material: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; generally, the latter is the alabaster of the ancients...
monument dated 1634. The tower contains two monuments dated in the 18th century. In the arcade is a marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
tablet in Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style dated 1861, and in the southwest of the chancel is another marble tablet, this one by Chantrey, dated 1819. There is some medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
stained glass in two of the windows in the nave. The single-manual
Manual (music)
A manual is a keyboard designed to be played with the hands on a pipe organ, harpsichord, clavichord, electronic organ, or synthesizer. The term "manual" is used with regard to any hand keyboard on these instruments to distinguish it from the pedalboard, which is a keyboard that the organist plays...
organ was built in 1870 by Henry Jones and Son.