St Mary's Church, Hartwell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St Mary's Church, Hartwell |
|
|---|---|
St Mary's Church, Hartwell, from the southeast
|
|
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
| OS grid reference | SP 795 125 |
| Location | Hartwell, Buckinghamshire |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Website | Churches Conservation Trust |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Redundant |
| Heritage designation | Grade II* |
| Designated | 21 December 1967 |
| Architect(s) | Henry Keene |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Early Gothic Revival |
| Groundbreaking | 1753 |
| Completed | 1755 |
| Specifications | |
| Materials | Stone ashlar |
St Mary's Church is an old Anglican church in the village of Hartwell, Buckinghamshire, England. It is no longer used for regular church services. This means it is a "redundant" church. A group called the Churches Conservation Trust now looks after it. The church is mostly a ruin today. You can find it in the large grounds of Hartwell House, just north of the A418 road.
History of St Mary's Church
This church was built between 1753 and 1755. It was designed by an architect named Henry Keene. Sir William Lee asked for it to be built. It is one of the first buildings made in the Gothic Revival style. This style tries to copy the look of much older Gothic churches. The church was also planned to be a beautiful part of the Hartwell House gardens.
The church is now a ruin, meaning it is partly fallen apart. On December 21, 1967, it was given a special status called Grade II* listed building. This means it is a very important building with special historical interest.
The church stopped being used for services on March 23, 1973. On July 27, 1975, the Churches Conservation Trust took over its care. When the Trust first got the church, it was in very bad shape. It didn't even have a roof! In the year 2000, some important repairs were done. Workers rebuilt the roof to look like the original one, using Westmorland slate. They also fixed the roof of the east tower. Plus, they repaired some of the stone on the outside of the church. However, visitors cannot go inside the church.
What the Church Looks Like
St Mary's Church is built from ashlar stone, which means smooth, cut blocks of stone. It has a unique eight-sided shape. There are two towers, one at the east end and one at the west end.
The main windows have three sections and a special pattern called Y-tracery at the top. Around the very top of the church, there is a battlemented parapet. This looks like the top of a castle wall. It has pointy decorations called crocketted pinnacles and a decorative border called a moulded cornice.
Below this, there is a continuous line of stone called a string course. Between the string course and the parapet, you can see windows shaped like four-leaf clovers, called quatrefoil windows. On the north and south sides, and on the outer parts of the towers, there are round windows called rose windows. The very tops of the towers have openwork parapets and more crocketted pinnacles.
See also
