Because of significant boundary changes between Oxford and
adjoining counties,
certain places may not be found where you think they should
be. In which case, please use the following links:
Oxfordshire |
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Churches which still retain west gallery
features or connections |
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Biddlesden, St
Margaret |
"Remote, on the
Northamptonshire border. This little box-like church was once the chapel of the adjoining
private house, and is attached to the stable block. It is of the same date as
the house, 1730, which occupies the site of a Cistercian Abbey. 18th C.
fittings, and clear glass, but undistinguished, its charm consisting of its
private, park like situation and pleasant texture" (CEPC)
Two-storey west gallery, upper part for the
family of the house. |
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Chearsley, St
Nicholas |
1761 gallery.
"The mediaeval
building . . . has mercifully escaped serious recent restorations and has a
gallery and old pews, with good 18th C. monuments. (CEPC) |
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Chetwode, St
Mary & St Nicholas |
The choir or chancel of a small
Augustinian priory which became parochial in 1480 . . . the 14th C. chapel has
become the Manor pew with fireplace . . .(CEPC)
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Chicheley, St
Lawrence |
" . . . a splendid mixture of dates
and styles . . . box pews and a nicely antiquated air." (CEPC) |
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*Dorney, St
James |
"Dreams away in a backwater beside
the splendid timbered house of Dorney Court. Tudor brick tower and bits of
every period of architecture before and since . . . 17th C. communion rails and
other woodwork . . . (CEPC)
West gallery
"1634 Henry Felo" on centre panel refers to Henry Fellows. Gallery still used
by singers and musicians. # |
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*Dunton, St
Martin |
"A church with hardly any village,
pleasantly unrestored. Box pews, west gallery with texts and Rectors' and
Church Wardens' names . . . "(CEPC)
Gallery late 18th C. "Humble, with many
inscriptions, including two in Greek." (Pevsner.)
# |
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Edlesborough,
St Mary the Virgin |
"Horribly maltreated in the 18th
cent., but contains the most wonderful things - complete screen, stalls, pulpit
and tester, and roofs of the 15th century. . . " (CEPC) |
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Gayhurst, St
Peter |
This church needs checking out -
reputed to contain a good pulpit, pews and panelling inside a 1728 rebuilding
of a mediaeval church. |
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Great Linford,
St Andrew |
A blend of 18th cent. and Decorated
Gothic, containing box pews and good altar rails. |
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Ibstone, St
Nicholas |
"Primitive, mainly 12th and 13th
cent." (CEPC)
No ref. in
Pevsner) |
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Ickford, St
Nicholas |
13th C. church with 17th C. gallery,
projecting on two columns. |
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*Langley Marsh,
St Mary |
1811 minstrels' gallery at west end
of north aisle; now holds organ, bought in 1865.
"Packed with interest
. . . 17th C. tower, timber nave arcade dating from 1630, spacious and rich
14th C. chancel. . . above all the Kederminster and Seymour transept, pew
and library, all of the first half of the 17th century and largely unaltered
with books on their shelves . . . " (CEPC) |
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Lillingstone Lovell,
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
Formerly in Oxfordshire. 17th and
18th C. fittings, including pulpit, rails, pews, hatchments, etc. |
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Loudwater,
unknown |
Church 1788. "Three pretty
galleries" (Pevsner) |
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Marsh
Gibbon,
St Mary |
Known to
have had a quire, from the existence of a manuscript book of
Psalm tunes and anthems. |
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Nether
Winchendon,
St Nicholas |
18th C. gallery, (another source
says 17th C.), with high pews, hatchments, sentences, and a Jacobean
pulpit. |
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Newton Blossomville,
St Nicholas |
Partly 11th C., but the general
impression is of simple countrified work of the 18th C., with pulpit and
gallery, plus a little mediaeval glass. (CEPC) |
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North Crawley,
St Firmin |
An important mediaeval church, . . .
with 15th C. painted screen . . . and box pews . . . (CEPC)
Not in Pevsner. |
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Pitstone, St
Mary |
A small church lying in chalk fields
below the Chilterns . . the whole being dominated by a fine Jacobean pulpit and
tester beneath 18th C. 'sentences' over the chancel arch. |
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Tatternhoe, St
Giles |
Tiny, remote, church with no road to
it, set within the moats, banks and ditches of a deserted village. A simple
interior with box pews . |
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Thornton, St
Michael |
The church was shorn of its chancel in the mid
18th C. and stands opposite the front door of the big house, now Thornton
College. Mostly 15th C. and "all but rebuilt circa 1850 . . . the effect . . .
due to the use of plenty of old materials is not Victorian." Box pews facing
inwards, college-chapel fashion. |
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Churches which are known to have had west
gallery features or connections |
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Hardmead, St Mary
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TL 93 44 77. Near
Newport Pagnell, St Mary’s Church is listed Grade I. The
medieval village which it served has long since disappeared
although until deep ploughing operations in 1973 vague
earthworks showed its location nearby. The west tower is
13th century, the chancel slightly later, whilst the south
porch, top stage of the tower and clerestory are 15th
century. The font is medieval and carved in clunch (hard
chalk) and there is a pretty Georgian organ. Link
to Friends of Friendless Churches Site
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Stoke Poges, St
Giles |
When the Hastings Chapel was renovated. the
gallery (described as "good") was removed. |
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Twyford,
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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Chapels which have or had west
gallery features or connections |
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Amersham,
Particular Baptists, The Lower Meeting-house, High
Street |
SU 956973. The
Particular Baptists who seceded from the Upper Meeting ca.
1740 began to hold services in a cottage at Woodrow, (1 1/2
miles south-west) followed by the erection there of a
meeting-house. Soon after the appointment of Richard Morris
to the pastorate, meetings were commenced in his house at
Amersham, close to the present site, which he registered in
July 1777. Before 1781 a small chapel was built described in
the Trust deeds as 27ft long and 20ft wide, standing 56ft up
from the street, parts of which may be incorporated into the
existing building.
In 1783 a fund was started 'to erect a more
commodious building' on part of Richard Thomas' 'great yard'
and this date has generally been accepted as that of the
present structure, although some details could date from the
early 18th century. The meeting-house, which stands behind
other property on the south-west side of the street, has
brick walls and a hipped slate roof.
The wide front wall has two distinct building phases; the
first the three bays to the left, the second the two bays to
the right. The arches of the three doorways and the arches
of the two windows on the ground floor are decorated with
female heads. In each side wall there are two small circular
windows at gallery level. The rear is three-sided with
round-arched windows in the angles. Above the roof is a
decagonal lantern with urn finial.
The interior has a circular domed ceiling; the rear wall
is treated as a wide rounded apse opposite which is a
balustraded gallery front of matching shape breaking forward
slightly at the centre. Plain boarded pews in the gallery
and box-pews below are contemporary with the building, but
the pulpit and surrounding seating date from the late 19th
century. (C&MH-B
1986)
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Aylesbury,
Former Independent, Castle Street |
SP 817138. Walls of
brick, and a tiled roof. The north end was built in the
later 19th century probably replacing a cottage behind which
the chapel was erected. The west wall behind the adjoining
property has at the centre a wide round-arched window
matched by a similar window in the east wall, and to each
side a small octagonal window of early 19th century type.
Further rooms have been added against the south end.
The interior (55ft x 20ft inc. front enlargement) has a
late 19th century North gallery The roof is supported by
four trusses with king-posts above collar-beams, and clasped
purlins. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Bierton,
Strict Baptist |
SP 839157. Present
chapel probably built 1831, is of brick and slate, and
originally aligned with a row of cottages, but enlarged in
the front in 1885. The original building erected as or
converted from a cottage is almost entirely obscured by a
later work, but the interior retains the former cottage-like
proportions with two doorways and two upper windows flanking
the pulpit on the back wall. In 1885 a gallery in the front
extension took the place of the side galleries. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Buckingham,
Old Meeting-house, Presbyterian, latterly
Independent, Well Street |
SP
696339. Built in 1726 for a Presbyterian congregation
which was formed in 1700. Despite the erection in 1793 of
the Congregational 'New Meeting-house' on the site of the
present chapel, increased attendances necessitated
enlargements in 1809, 1816, and again in 1839. About 1850
the Well Street congregation and the Congregational church
united, and the Well Street building was converted for use
as school-rooms and for mid-week meetings. It has long since
passed into commercial use although the upper part was at
one time used by a Brethren's Assembly. Two small windows
high in the side walls served the former gallery. The
building much resembles that at Bicester,
Oxon. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Chalfont
St Giles,
former meeting-house on site of present
Congregational chapel. |
SU 988933. Small
model in the present chapel shows the older building, which
had galleries round three sides opposite the pulpit. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Chenies,
Particular Baptist |
TQ 021981. Completed
1778, although enlarged to the front in 1799. Rear vestry
rebuilt or enlarged 1833, and again enlarged and a
schoolroom built above it in 1841, completed in 1851.
The chapel has brick walls and a hipped roof, formerly with
a central valley and tiled, but now altered and slated. The
interior has a flat plaster ceiling. The original
north-east wall, now internal, has two segmental-arched
windows flanking the pulpit the cills of which have been
raised and the inner jambs splayed. The gallery around three
sides has a fielded panelled front extended to the
south-west in 1799 and supported on four turned wood
columns, one replaced in cast-iron, and by two thin columns
added in1829. the columns and gallery fronts were marbled in
green ca. 1910. The gallery staircases in the front corners
replace staircases in the corresponding corners of the
original structure. All the pews were renewed in the late
19th century, but some slight indications of former layout
remain, especially in the gallery, where seat numbers on
inside of fronts to side galleries are faintly visible below
over-painting. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Ford,
General Baptist |
SP 776092. Probably
built in the mid 18th century, but enlarged 1829, and again
in 1852. Largely refitted in 1882. Built of mixed materials,
partly rendered, and a tiled roof half-hipped to the rear.
The interior has a north-west gallery with early 19th
century seating. |
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Edlesborough,
Wesleyan |
SP 974197. Purple
brick and yellow brick dressings and slate roof; octagonal
corner buttresses to gabled front formally with pinnacles,
lancet windows with cast-iron frames; built 1858. Original
rostrum pulpit between front entrances with vestry behind,
gallery opposite with screens to schoolroom beneath;
box-pews. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Great
Horwood, Congregational |
SP 772313. A
Sunday-school commenced ca. 1819 by John Adey of Winslow led
to the formation of an adult congregation for the increased
needs of which 'a barn was fitted up as a school house and a
place of worship' in 1821. A gallery was added two years
later. This chapel, built as a barn, has brick walls and a
tiled roof. The original barn entrances are still visible in
the north and south walls. The interior retains its original
seating with shaped ends to open benches. The gallery seats
have open backs, the ends of two of which rise to slender
posts serving as candle sconces. The east gallery has a
plain panelled front. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Great
Missenden, Baptist, High Street |
SP 894013. The
chapel, set back behind other buildings on the west side of
the street, was built 1838. The front wall, rendered in
stucco, has a recessed, central entrance flanked by narrow
gallery staircases behind the end-bays, The interior,
now largely refitted, has a curved east walll behind the
pulpit and a segmental gallery opposite with original
cast-iron balustraded front. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Haddenham,
Baptist |
SP 740086. A
Particular Baptist church existed in Haddenham in 1655, but
the meeting-house burnt down in 1701. The congregation
continued to meet and in 1934 the present site was acquired
and a small chapel built. It closed and by 1773 seems to
have fallen into decay. A fresh start was made in 1799, and
the present chapel dates from 1809, standing on the site of
its predecessor. The interior has a plastered ceiling with a
wide cove along the east and west sides. The south gallery
is original and has a panelled front with applied
pointed-arched ornament; side galleries were added soon
after 1812 for the use of the Sunday-school children and
have panelled fronts similar to the south gallery, but
lower, and contemporary seating with shaped ends and low
backs. The pulpit was replaced ca. 1948. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Ivinghoe,
Strict Baptist, Station Road |
SP 944163. The site
was that of the house of one William Watts, and the chapel
was registered in 1813.. It was enlarged to the south by the
addition of a vestry and school-room in 1866. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Lacy
Green, Baptist, Speen |
SU 844998. Known as
Salem Chapel. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Longwick,
The Little Chapel, |
SP 787050. The Little
Chapel, described in he Trust Deed of 13 November 1810 as
'lately erected', was not denominationally restricted
although commonly regarded as Baptist, and with two
ministers of that denomination as Trustees. The building is
small and set far back from the road; the walls are of
coursed rubble with brick quoins and dressings, and the roof
is hipped and tiled. The north-east front has a central
entrance between two segmental-arched windows and a circular
window over. There are two similar windows in the rear wall
and i each end wall is a window set high up below the eaves.
The interior, partly refitted in the late 19th century and
later, has a gallery to the south-east and an early 19th
century pulpit opposite with coved and moulded
cornice. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Marlow,
Congregational |
SU 856865. 'Salem
Chapel' was built 1838-40 as a church (now URC) formed in
1777. The present chapel, which stands to the north-west of
its predecessor, is of red brick with a facing of yellow
brick to the front. The interior, largely refitted in the
late 19th century, has a rear gallery with children's
seating divided and each half accessible separately from two
staircases. (C&MH-B
1986) |
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Newport
Pagnall,
Wesleyan, High Street |
SP 875439. Red brick
front with oval tablet dated 1815. Original gallery at
entrance, otherwise refitted. (C&MH-B
1986)
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North
Crawley,
Former Congregational |
SP 928447. Brick and
slate. blind circle above central doorway and oval tablet in
pediment dated 1821. Interior square with arcaded side
walls, and rear gallery with original open-backed benches.
Closed ca. 1968, now converted into a house. (C&MH-B
1986)
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Olney,
Baptist |
SP 889513. The
present chapel was largely rebuilt in 1893, and has stone
walls and a slate roof. Some remains still exist of the
former chapels on the site, and the two date stones of 1694
and 1763 relate to these earlier structures. Until 1893
there was a pulpit with pedimented back centrally against
the longer north wall and deep galleries at the east and
west ends - no longer there. (C&MH-B
1986)
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Princes
Risborough,
Baptist, Bell Street |
SP 809032. Present building dates from 1804-05, which was
extended to the rear and internally rearranged in 1814. The
galleries were enlarged and extended in 1833 and about 1871 a
vestry was added and he interior reseated. The 19th
century galleries are around three sides, with rooms below the
north-east gallery and a former baptistery below the opposite
gallery. The tops of the side galleries are each carved
with large numerals 1-6 and the north-west gallery had
square slots for music stands. (C&MH-B
1986)
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Waddesdon
Hill, Nr Aylesbury, Strict and Particular Baptist |
SP 754150. Grade II*
chapel of 1792, built by Francis Cox. Flint rubble with
brick dressings and some later rendering and the hipped roof
is covered with tiles. The rear wall has two closely-set
windows which flank the original site of the pulpit, and
high in each end wall is a window to light a gallery. The
interior has a gallery at the north-east end with panelled
front supported by two octagonal posts, and with
contemporary seating. The pulpit, lowered and re-sited at
the south-west end with a baptistery in front, replaces a
second gallery. There is a a fireplace used by the
ladies following baptism in the total immersion font which
is under trap door immediately in front of the Georgian
pulpit. (C&MH-B
1986)
Link
to Friends of Friendless Churches Site.
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Wendover,
General Baptist, South Street |
SP 869074. Present
building thought to be a rebuild of the original chapel, ca.
1770, and, again, this forms the basis of the present
building. Of dark red brick, heightened in the early 19th
century and given a tiled roof gabled to east and west, but
probably hipped originally. Chapel greatly enlarged in 1833,
and in 1883 the west front was rebuilt in white brick with
red brick dressings and the gallery staircase rebuilt in a
projection to the south. There is a west gallery. (C&MH-B
1986)
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Wingrave,
Congregational |
SP 868189. Built 1832
for a church (now URC) formed in 1805. Brick walls, rendered
west front and hipped slate roof. Two tiers of windows with
renewed frames; round-arched doorway with fanlight and small
date-tablet above. West gallery with a panelled front and
applied mouldings, supported by two thin iron columns.
Reseated in the late 19th century. (C&MH-B
1986)
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Winslow,
Keach's Meeting-house |
SP 769274. A General
Baptist church was in existence in Winslow by 1654.
The meeting-house, which stands concealed behind other
property close to the cattle market, and variously described
as in Pillar's Ditch, Bell Alley, or Market Walk, was built
in 1695. It is a small rectangular structure with walls in
red brick in Flemish bond, and a tiled roof gabled to ease
and west.
The interior measures just 23ft x 15ft, and has been
altered at various dates, and the present arrangement
probably dates from the beginning of the 19th century. A
gallery built at the east end in 1827 as a temporary measure
to accommodate the influx of Independent seceders has an
open-cross braced front supported by two posts replacing a
central post, and a steep staircase to the north.
Box-pews north and south of central pulpit, flanking table
pew, ca. 1800, altered. Open-backed benches at east end,
early 19th century; against east wall, desks with hinged
tops and four lead ink-wells, for use of the Sunday-school
which started in 1824. |
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churches in preparation |
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