Patrick Comerford
When I walked from Buckingham to the nearby village of Gawcott last week, I was particularly interested in seeing the village where the Victorian Gothic revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) was born, and the parish church built in 1827 by his father, the Revd Thomas Scott (1780-1835).
Although Gawcott was long without a church, mediaeval Gawcott was a prebend of Buckingham, and the estate known as Prebend End Manor, or Buckingham with Gawcott Manor, formed part of the endowment of Buckingham Church at the time of the Domesday Book.
Gawcott probably had a church by 1580, although little is known about its history. After the church disappeared, the villagers were left with the option of attending church in either Padbury or Hillesden, or in Buckingham, Radclive or Tingewick.
John West, a wealthy lace buyer in Gawcott, decided to build a church in Gawcott in 1806 out of his own resources. By 1817, however, the roof needed major repairs, and due to the long, dry summers in 1825 and 1826 the building subsided and the whole building gave way. At first the church was held up by 19 strong props, but by the end of 1826 it had to be closed. The last service there was held on Christmas Day 1826, and demolition began the following day.
At the time, the Vicar of Gawcott was the Revd Thomas Scott, who had arrived in the village 20 years earlier. Scott was the grandson of the biblical commentator Thomas Scott (1747-1821), a friend of the hymn writer John Newton, who was a curate nearby in Olney. Both the elder Thomas Scott and Newton were among of the founders of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1799, and Scott was the Rector of Aston Sandford in Buckinghamshire from 1803 until his death in 1821.
John Henry Newman described the elder Thomas Scott as ‘the writer who made a deeper impression on my mind than any other, and to whom (humanly speaking) I almost owe my soul’.
Soon after his arrival, the younger Thomas Scott’s son, George Gilbert Scott, was born in Gawcott on 13 July 1811. Later, Thomas Scott set about designing the basic church that still stands today, raised the necessary financing, and supervised the building work by James Willmore of Buckingham.
Unlike other churches in neighbouring villages, Holy Trinity Church in Gawcott does not stand on a prominent position within the street scene. Instead, it is screened by surrounding buildings and a high hedgerow along the south side of Main Street.
Scott’s church is rather plain in appearance and it is said that it did not impress his son, the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. It was dismissed scathingly by John Camp in his book Portrait of Buckingham (1972), where he descried it as ‘hideous pseudo-classicism’.
Holy Trinity Church was completed in 1827, and since then it has seen alterations and renovations. Gawcott was formed into an ecclesiastical parish on 4 November 1862.
The classical-style church is a Listed Grade II* building. It fronts onto the small village green and the south side of Main Street, with Charlotte Cottage (Grade II listed) to the east. Under the supervision of Thomas Scott’s grandson and George Gilbert Scott’s son, the architect John Oldrid Scott, the gallery at the west end of the church was removed in 1894 and the present ceiling was installed.
The church has a polygonal apse, a wide aisleless nave and a small west tower. The apse is lower than the nave and has blank east wall, and the windows have round-arched heads. The west end has six-paned, double-leaf doors on either side of the tower with plain raised stone surrounds and low pediments on console brackets, with windows above the doors.
The front is surmounted by half pediments that flank the tower. The tower has three stages and a west window similar to those in the nave and on same scale.
Inside the church, the chancel arch has an elliptical-arched head imposts, the nave and apse have flat plaster ceilings. Items of interest in the church include two round arch-headed boards that have survived from the earlier church demolished in 1826. They have been moved from the east end to the north wall, with the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed on one board, and the Ten Commandments on the other.
The original communion rails have been moved forward from the entrance to the apse and has symmetrical turned balusters. The early 19th century hexagonal pulpit has panel mouldings on its sides. The organ dates from the early 19th century. The chandeliers were installed in 1894, and were restored and rehung in 1995.
The wall monumentsin the church include a white marble monument to the south of the apse to the parish benefactor John West who paid for previous chapel, and one to the north of the apse, behind the pulpit, in memory of Revd Thomas Scott (1780-1835).
The inscription on Scott’s memorial records his 27 years of service and building the present church ‘on the site of the former Chapel which had fallen to decay, by assistance of friends tho not without considerable personal expense.’
Scott left Gawcott to become the Rector of Wappenham, Northamptonshire, where his son, Sir George Gilbert Scott, was the architect of a new vicarage.
In recent years, the roof and the parapets of the church have been repaired, new windows were installed and the lighting update. The tower was reduced during major work in 1979, and as a consequence the bell chamber was lost. The bell was then rehung above the roof of the tower and the clock has been silent since.
Another major restoration was carried out in 1990, beginning with the north wall of the main churchyard. The north slope of the roof was removed after the architect declared the roof was dangerous, with rot in the north end of each of the three western single span joists.
The church interior was restored after the plaster on the lower walls was found to be damp, and new panelling was installed, matching the panelling in the sanctuary. The nave floor was been replaced.
After these renovations and alterations, Holy Trinity Church was reconsecrated by Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford in June 2002. More recently, new kitchen and toilet facilities have been installed in the church.
• Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott, is part of the Lenborough Benefice, which also includes Saint Cecilia’s, Adstock, All Saints’, Hillesden, and Saint Mary’s, Padbury. The interim vicar is the Revd Dr Quentin Chandler, who is also Head of Vocations and Director of Ordinands (DDO) in the Diocese of Oxford. Sunday services at 10:30 rotate between the four churche in the benefice and include: ‘Café Sunday (first Sunday); Benefice Communion (second Sunday); ‘Care and Share’ (third Sunday); and Holy Communion (fourth Sunday).
