The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Milton Keynes (now)
Parish church
Lathbury is a small village inNorth Buckinghamshire(ancient hundred of Bunsty), a mile from the northern edge of Newport Pagnell. It stands in fertile, low-lying farmland in a loop of the Great Ouse. The village is on the road from Newport Pagnell toNorthampton, and the church with the hall alongside it is some 300 yards away from the village centre, alongside the river. The present hall,LathburyPark, dates from 1801 and replaced a medieval manor house on the same site.
All Saints consists of an aisled and clerestoried nave, chancel and W tower. Remains of the original early-12thc structure can be seen in the form of a blocked window in the S wall of the nave, now partly removed by the later arcade, and a tympanum carved with lions now reset in the N nave arcade wall at the E end. The S arcade dates from the end of the 12thc, as does the S nave doorway (the N doorway is 18thc). The unbuttressed, thick-walled W tower is apparently slightly later (early 13thc according to RCHME). The tower arch has been entirely remade but retains some 12thc features; and the tower windows, plain pointed and chamfered lancets on the first two levels and double pointed and chamfered bell-openings on the third, are early 13thc work. The S porch also belongs to this period but was rebuilt in the 19thc. The N arcade dates from c1300, as do the clerestory and the aisle windows, which have intersecting or Y-tracery. The chancel arch is contemporary with the N arcade, but the chancel windows are stylistically later, with reticulated tracery. Battlements have been added to nave, aisles and tower, all in blocks of brown ironstone that contrast with the greyish yellow irregularly coursed limestone rubble of the rest of the building. The tower battlement is recent; the rest possibly 15thc. There was a restoration in 1869 and Lathbury received a grant for repairs, carried out by L. E. King ofLondonin 1962-65.
Parish church
Lavendon is a village in the extreme N of the county, on the A428 road from Northampton (10 miles) to Bedford (8 miles). The church stands on a bend in the centre of the village. It consists of a plain 11thc W tower of rubble with some herringbone masonry and plain rubble lancet windows. The top storey was added in the 14th or 15thc. The nave is Romanesque in origin (see the blocked window in the N arcade wall), with aisles added in the late-12thc (S) and the 13thc (N). In the 15thc a clerestorey was added. The E end of the N aisle is fitted as a chapel, and in the corresponding situation on the S is the organ room. There are embattled N and S porches; the S of 2 storeys. A blocked window in the chancel S wall indicates 12thc fabric, but it was remodelled in the 13thc. Romanesque features described here are the S nave arcade and a piscina set in the N aisle chapel.
Parish church
Ravenstone is in the N of the county, in the Domesday hundred of Bunsty. The village stands in rising land on the N side of the Great Ouse, and Ravenstone Mill, on the river, is 1½ miles S of the village centre. The church is on high ground at the N end of the village, and NW of it is the site of Ravenstone Priory, an Augustinian house founded by a bequest in 1254 by Peter Chaceporc (or Chaseport), Keeper of the King’s Wardrobe, and dissolved in 1524. The buildings were demolished, but traces of priory fabric were discovered during the conversion of a barn into a house (Priory Lade) and were built into the house. Nearby to the W is a fishpond and a moat.
All Saints church has a nave, chancel and a W tower, and a S aisle added to the nave is continued eastward to form a S chapel. Construction is of grey coursed rubble with some herringbone masonry in the N nave and chancel walls. The tower is 13thc work with a plain, very low tower arch inside and pointed double bell-openings with a polygonal central shaft. The nave and chancel are older, as indicated by the herringbone masonry, the tall proportions of both and the high, steeply pitched nave roofline visible on the E wall of the tower. Late on in the 12thc the S aisle was added, but only the two E bays of the arcade belong to the first campaign. The W bay was added in the mid-13thc. Clerestory windows were added on both sides of the nave in the 15thc, and a plain, straight-headed S doorway and buttresses on the N side were added in 1670. The S chapel was built to house themonumentofHeneage Finch, Earl of Nottingham and Lord Chancellor of England who died in 1682. This enormous four-poster tomb with the reclining figure of the earl is attributed by Pevsner (following Gunnis) to William Stanton or Joseph Catterns. The E wall of the chancel appears to have been rebuilt in the 19thc. The only Romanesque sculpture here is in the S nave arcade.
Parish church
The village of Milton Keynes gave its name to the new town designated in 1967, that subsumed a total of 15 villages and the farmland between them. Considered as part of Milton Keynes, the village is now known as Middleton, which was its original (11thc ) name. The supplement Keynes comes from the family name of the Lords of the Manor from the 12thc onwards. Middleton, as we must now call it, really does retain a village appearance, consisting of the church, a thatched pub and a collection of attractive old houses arranged around a large green.
All Saints has a nave and chancel with a 2-bay N chapel, all of 14thc date. The tower is on the N side of the nave at the E end. It is of 3 stages with a battlemented parapet. There is a S porch, and a vestry has recently been added to the N side of the church, accessed from the interior by the N nave doorway. The church is usually assumed to have been a rebuilding by Walter Keynes (d.1330) of a 12thc church (of which only the E nave wall including the chancel arch remains). The chapel was built for Philip Aylsbury (d.1349).
Parish church, formerly chapel
Little Linford is a village on the N edge of Milton Keynes in the far N of the county. It stands at a junction of minor roads on the N bank of the River Great Ouse. The church is on the edge of the grounds of Linford Hall, a late-17thc house altered in the 18thc, and consists of an aisled nave with a double bell-cote over the W gable and an aisleless chancel. The chancel is 13thc in origin but rebuilt using old materials, notably the E and S windows. The chancel arch is modern but includes re-used imposts, described below. The N arcade is 13thc, of 2 bays and the S arcade is early 14thc, of 3 bays. Reset in the S aisle wall is the doorway described below, of c.1200 or later. There is also the plainest of fonts, of uncertain date, also described here.
Parish church, formerly chapel
Castlethorpe is a large village in the N of the county, 6 miles NW of the centre of Milton Keynes. It stands on the N bank of the Roiver Great Ouse, and the West Coast railway runs through its W side. It formerly had its own station with links to London and Birmingham, but this was closed in 1964. The church stands in the centre of the village on a raised site which is the inner bailey of the former castle (which survives only as earthworks). It has a long, tall chancel, a truncated low nave with 2-bay aisles and a clerestorey, and a W tower built after its predecessor collapsed in 1729. There are no lateral doorways to the nave and entry is gained through the W tower doorway. Of this the nave and N arcade are 12thc, the chancel is 14thc, and the S arcade and both aisle walls are 15thc.
Cluniac house, former
Today Tickford Abbey is a residental care home on the northern edge of Tickford End, that part of Newport Pagnell that lies on the E bank of the river Great Ouse. The present house is a square 18thc building in substantial grounds were remains of the former priory have been found. Behind the house, to the NE of it, is a walled garden, and inside this at the W end carved stones from the priory have been assembled in a rectancular frame built into the wall. Most are dogtooth (i.e. early 13thc) but three stones are carved with elaborate point-to-point chevron, and these are described below.