Patrick Comerford
I was at a meeting of local Milton Keynes clergy at lunchtime today in Saint Mary’s Church, Wavendon, in the south-east area of Milton Keynes.
Wavendon is an Old English name meaning ‘Wafa’s hill’. The village is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 969 as Wafandun. The parish originally included Woburn Sands, but thid became a separate parish in 1907, and the two parishes are separated by the Marston Vale line.
Saint Mary’s Church is one of the few Anglican churches I know whose full dedication is to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although there is nothing identifiable earlier than the 13th century, the church is the oldest surviving building in Wavendon.
The church has a chancel, nave with aisles, clerestory and south porch, and a west tower that was added in the 15th century. The style of the chancel is Early Decorated, the piers and arches of the nave are Decorated, and the roofs, the clerestory and the tower are Perpendicular.
The early history of the building is unknown. The list of rectors shows the church was already there in the 13th century. The nave was extended and the aisles added towards the end of the 13th century, and the west tower was added in the 15th century.
Saint Mary’s was completely restored in 1848-1849, modernised and refurnished in Gothic style by the architect William Butterfield (1814-1900), at a cost of about £4,000 raised by subscription and donation.
Butterfield’s work in Wavendon was a gentle forerunners of his more controversial style, best known in All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, in London, and Keble College, Oxford.
Butterfield is known particularly for his highly decorated buildings and using a wide range of colours internally. Although little remains of his bright paintwork at Saint Mary’s, an example can be seen in the low chancel screen walls. In his work at Saint May’s, Butterfield rebuilt or refaced several walls and some of the stonework, and added the north vestry. The south porch, the west door and the window above it date from the same time.
Butterfield also designed the furniture, the font and several sanctuary items, and worked closely with Michael O’Connor of London who made much of the stained-glass windows.
Further refurbishment has been carried out since the restoration. Electric candelabra replaced candles in 1895, and the church has been a designated Grade II* listed building since 1966.
A major project in 2011 provided easier access from the road, as well as kitchen and toilet facilities, and also reordered the chancel and vestry and gave more storage space. A cross on the front of the tower screen is a Methodist symbol recognising that this work was funded through Methodist funds principally from the sale of the chapel in Phoebe Lane.
The south porch, the main entrance the church, has floor tiling with a mandorla-inspired pattern. There is a holy water stoup on the right-hand side of the doorway – although this is without water nowadays.
The chancel is at a light angle to the nave and has two areas: the raised sanctuary area and the choir. The oak-panelled roof of the chancel is coloured ultra-marine, and thickly studded with stars of gold, extending to the head of the east window, which contains figures amidst the stars, of the Greater and Lesser Light. An illuminated scroll is banded closely round the label moulding of the East Window, and bears an inscription.
The altar or communion table is a heavy single slab of blue lias stone supported on a stout oak framework. Originally set against the east wall, it was later moved forward to enable the priest to stand behind and face the congregation.
The brass candlesticks were brought from Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Ypres in Belgium after World War I, along with a substantial wooden carving of a cherub now in the side chapel in the south aisle.
An aumbry for holding the sacred vessels and the reserved sacraments is set in an arch beside the high altar. Underneath, in the south wall, are a double piscina, with a triple sedilia beside that. The backs of the sedilia are coloured blue, with fleur-de-lis motifs – the colour and symbols of the Virgin Mary. An arcade recessed in the north wall contains four stone stalls with plain semicircular arches.
The choir stalls in the chancel are oak stalls with carved poppy-heads.
The floor is paved with red and buff encaustic tiles, the estrade being of a richer pattern. The communion table consists of a massive oak frame supporting a slab of blue lias – the whole covered with an ante-pendium of elegantly embroidered velvet.
A room on the north side has served in the past as a robing-room. The organ was built by Walker of London in 1849.
The four-light East Window by Michael O’Connor (1801-1867) depicts the Four Evangelists, with Saint Peter and Saint Paul above, and Christ the King at the top. The two two-light windows by O’Connor on the south side of the chancel depict the Annunciation (east) and the Adoration of the Magi (west). Sir John Betjeman praised the windows O’Connor at the east end and in the chancel for their brilliant colour.
The chancel arch is pointed and well proportioned. Beneath it is a low screen, coloured in the mouldings and panels, with green and red on a white ground. A pair of highly finished solid gates of brass has enamelled work and is supported by two brass standards, tufted with flowered finials depicting sunflowers.
The nave roof, which is covered with lead, is tall, and has sculptured heads for corbels. The clerestory windows are glazed with green tinted cathedral glass. The floor of the nave is paved with Minton tiles, red and black. The stalls or open seats are of oak, with carved ends.
The pulpit is of carved oak, raised on a stone base, with stone steps. It has a pea-pod trademark by Grinling Gibbons, a 17th century master woodcarver whose work can be seen in several London churches including Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and in Windsor Castle. It was brought from Saint Dunstan’s-in-the-West, London, when the church was rebuilt in 1831 when Fleet Street was widened.
The large font of Totternhoe stone is sculpted, and has a carved cover of oak, suspended by chains and surmounted by a gilt dove.
An oak chest behind the font is about 500 years old. It originally had three locks, with the keys kept by the rector and each of the two churchwardens. All three had to be present to gain access to the vestments and other valuable contents.
The side aisles are separated from the nave by four arches on each side, resting upon clustered columns. The aisles were formerly side chapels, the piscinas of which remain.
The windows at the west end of the north and south aisles contain some pieces of 15th century glass in the top tracery.
The etchings on the wall in the north aisle are by Captain Ian Strang, a soldier and artist. Some of his works are in the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Gallery. His memorial is outside on the south wall of the nave.
The stained glass window at the end of the north aisle depicts the Crucifixion, with figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John, on either side. Under the east window of the north aisle is an illuminated mural brass to Henry Arthur Hoare of Wavendon House, youngest son of Sir Henry Hugh Hoare.
A marble mural monument in the north aisle commemorates Sir Henry Hugh Hoare. He bought Wavendon House in 1798 and lived there until he inherited the family title of baronet in 1838, when he moved to Stourhead, the family seat in Wiltshire.
His second son, Henry Charles Hoare, continued to live at Wavendon House. The family bought the advowson, and in 1847 he nominated his cousin by marriage, the Revd Henry Burney, as the Rector of Wavendon. The church was restored during his time as rector, and his face can also be seen in one of the windows in the north aisle.
Heraldic hatchments that were carried ceremonially at Hoare family funerals are mounted high overhead at the east end of the north aisle.
The side chapel in the south aisle also has a piscina in the south wall. The altar in this chapel is a 17th century oak table with Doric style legs. A carved cherub alongside the altar was rescued by Sir Percy Laurie along with some altar furnishings from the ruins of Ypres cathedral during World War I.
A memorial window in the south aisle depicts the Resurrection. Another memorial window nearby depicts Saint Catherine and Saint Agnes.
The richly-coloured stained-glass windows donated by the Hoare family were made by Michael O’Connor. The lighter windows were donated by the Burney family and made by Burlington and Grylls.
The West Window has a cinquefoil window showing a shield that commemorates the marriage of Henry Charles Hoare to Penelope Ainsley. They were living at Wavendon House at the time the church was restored in 1848-1849.
A shield over the north door shows the Poors’ Coal Agreement by the Duke of Bedford in 1809 providing fuel for the poor of the parish or £300 to the churchwardens in return for transferring to Dukes of Bedford lands awarded to the church during the enclosures in 1787.
The churchyard has a modern cross and memorial stones to members of local families, including the Boyle, Bumey, Fairtlough, Hoare, Lane and Mayor families.
Saint Mary’s Church, along with All Saints’ Church, Milton Keynes Village, Christ the King Church, Kent’s Hill, and the Church Without Walls in Broughton and Brooklands, form the Walton Churches Partnership (WCP). There are two other church buildings in the area: Saint Michael’s, Walton Hall, leased to the Open University; and St Lawrence’s Church, Broughton.
The four congregations include many neighbourhoods in south-east Milton Keynes: Middleton, Broughton, Brooklands, Monkston, Monkston Park, Oakgrove, Kent’s Hill, Walnut Tree, Caldecotte, Old Farm Park, Browns Wood, Wavendon Gate, Wavendon Village, Eagle Farm, Glebe Farm, Morton Park, as well as Walton itself.
The churches have been in an ecumenical partnership since 1990. The Ecumenical Parish of Walton was created in 1985 in a partnership between the Church of England, the United Reformed Church, the Baptist Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Methodist Church.
The Revd Matt Trendall is the Team Leader in the Walton Churches Partnership, and has oversight for Saint Mary’s Church, Wavendon, and All Saints’ Church, Milton Keynes Village.
• Sunday services in Saint Mary’s Church, Wavendon, are: 9:30, Family Communion with Children’s Church (first Sunday); 8:30, Morning Prayer, Book of Common Prayer, 9:30, Simple Sunday Service with Children’s Church (second Sunday); 9:30, Family Communion (third Sunday); 9:30 am Simple Sunday Service (fourth and fifth Sundays).
