Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott, the Buckinghamshire village church built by the father of Sir George Gilbert Scott

Holy Trinity Church in Gawcott, near Buckingham, was built in 1827 by Revd Thomas Scott (1780-1835) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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.

Inside Holy Trinity Church in Gawcott, Buckinghaminghamshire, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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’.

The altar and apse in Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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.

Looking towards the west end of Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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.

The monument to the Revd Thomas Scott behind the pulpit in Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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.

Some Scott family graves in the churchyard in Gawcott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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, seen from the south-east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

• 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).

The Old Rectory in Gawcott, facing the west end of Holy Trinity Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 23, Sunday 23 November 2025, Christ the King

Christ enthroned in majesty in the centre of the Christ the King or Cooper Window in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and today is the Feast of Christ the King, the Sunday next before Advent. Later this morning, I hope to be part of the choir at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford. The music this morning includes the motet Locus Ipse composed in 1869 by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) and a version of Psalm 46 (Deus Noster Refugium, God is our hope and strength) by Martin Luther.

Before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Three royal crowns for Christ the King … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 23: 33-43:

33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [34 Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ 38 There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ 42 Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ 43 He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

Christ the King depicted in the East Window (1948) by Lilian Josephine Pocock in the Church of Christ the King in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and the Sunday next before Advent (23 November 2025). Our readings bring us to the end of the Church Year. The Gospel reading also marks the last Sunday at the end of our journey in the Lectionary with Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. We will begin it all again next Sunday, with a new cycle of readings, beginning with Advent Sunday (30 November 2025), and reading through Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

But this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 23: 33-43) gives us time to pause and reflect on the fact that we have followed Christ for seven months or so through Saint Luke’s Gospel. We have seen Saint Luke’s distinctive emphases on the poor and their inclusion in the Kingdom, the inclusion of those not normally invited as guests to the great feasts.

In the Gospel reading, we are at the moment when Christ is crucified. The crucifixion is truly emphasised on Good Friday, but this morning the emphasis is on Christ the King and the request by one of the criminals to ‘remember me’ in the kingdom.

The Epistle reading (Colossians 1: 11-20) includes a hymn praising Christ as the king of this kingdom, listing his royal attributes in poetic form (verse 15-20):

‘In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.’

The Gospel reading may seem out of sequence as we approach Advent and prepare for Christmas. However, the Crucifixion is one of the ways in which we see Christ revealed to the world as King. The Crucifixion is his triumph rather than his defeat, and it leads not to our death but to his Resurrection and our promise of life in all its fullness, personalised in the way Christ assures the second criminal of the immediate promise of a place with him in Paradise.

This reading challenges to accept that today, this day (σήμερον, símeron), this very day, is the time to respond to the claims the kingdom makes on us (verse 43).

This reading may seem to be a little out of sequence on a Sunday morning. We are preparing for Christmas, you may think, not for Good Friday and Easter. But we forget that so easily. I hear on all the radio chat shows people already talking about this being the Christmas Season … before Advent has even started. In Britain, people are even talking about a Christmas election, rather than an Advent election.

But Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas, with the Lectionary readings telling us about the Coming of Christ.

We have made Christmas a far-too comfortable story. Christmas is a story about poverty and about people who are homeless and rejected and who can find no place to stay.

It is a messy story about a child born surrounded by the filth of animals and the dirt of squalor.

It is a story of shepherds who are involved in dangerous work, staying up all night, out in the winter cold, watching out for wolves and sheep stealers.

It is a story of trickery, deceit and the corruption of political power that eventually leads to a cruel dictator stooping to murder, even the murder of innocent children, to secure his own grip on power.

That is why in the weeks before Advent we have readings that remind us about what the coming of Christ into the world means, what the Kingdom of God is like, and how we should prepare for the coming of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Marking the Sunday before Advent by crowning Christ as King helps us to focus on Advent from next Sunday (30 November), and Advent is supposed to be a time and a season of preparing for the coming of Christ.

Kingship may not be a good role model for people living in modern democratic societies where the heads of state are elected – although many of the elected heads of state in many countries good models for democratic leadership either. Nor are the models of kingship in history or in contemporary society so good. Let me share some examples:

• We are familiar with a model of monarchy that paradoxically appears to be benign on the one hand and appears aloof and remote on the other hand, at the very apex of a class system defined by birth, title and inherited privilege.

• In other northern European countries, the model of monarchy is portrayed in the media by figureheads who are slightly daft do-gooders, riding around on bicycles in parks and by canals in ways that threaten to rob kingship of majesty, dignity and grace.

• Or, take emperors deposed in my own lifetime: Halie Selassie sat back in luxury as his people starved to death; Emperor Bokassa, was a tyrant accused of eating his people and having them butchered at whim.

• In the United States, it seems Trump would rather be king than a President with the usual checks and balances of a democratic society. • Even in Britain and Ireland, we sometimes need to be reminded that the word minister, whether we use it for government ministers or church ministers, is supposed to convey the idea of service, serving the people and serving God. The petition in the Book of Common Prayer pleads: ‘Endue thy ministers with righteousness’; and the response is ‘And make thy chosen people joyful’.

This morning, this Sunday before Advent, gives us time to pause and reflect on why, as we were reading our way through Saint Luke’s Gospel, we have been following Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. For it is there that he will be revealed in glory as the Son of Man and the King.

Discussing how the Lectionary can at times provide readings that are incongruous or out of season, Canon Giles Fraser – who resigned as Canon Chancellor of Saint Paul’s because of the cathedral’s response to the Occupy protests – wrote in the Church Times many years ago [4 November 2011]:

‘For too long the Church has been obsessed with its own internal workings and with silly arguments about sex. Now is the time for a new debate and a new emphasis. For if we are not fully involved with complex discussions about the relationship between financial justice and the way our financial institutions work, then we might as well give up on being a proper Church and admit that we are the spiritual arm of the heritage industry.’

He recalls that the Evensong readings set for his last sermon in Saint Paul’s Cathedral included: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation’ (Luke 6: 20, 25).

This morning’s Gospel reading challenges us in a way that is uncomfortable, but with things that must stay on the agenda of the Church.

The genius of power is revealed in those who have it and can use it but only do so sparingly. Christ’s choice is not to gratify those who want a worldly king, whether he is benign or barmy. Instead, he displays supreme majesty in his priorities for those who are counted out when it comes to other kingdoms.

Christ rejects all the dysfunctional models of majesty and kingship. He is not coming again as a king who is haughty and aloof, daft and barmy, or despotic and tyrannical. Instead he shows a model of kingship that emphasises what majesty and graciousness should mean for us today – giving priority in the kingdom to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner and the refugee.

In the current negative stormy debate about refugees, asylum seekers and migrants on small boats, a debate fuelled by racism, prejudice and extremism, I find comfort in the opening words of the Psalm this morning and its descrption of God as ‘our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble’ (Psalm 46: 1). The Psalmist goes on to say, ‘Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam’ (verses 2-3).

As we prepare for Christmas, we should be preparing to enjoy time with our families and friends, time for a good winter’s holiday. But we should also remember the reason we have Christmas, the reason Christ came into the world, and the reason he is coming again.

We can look forward to seeing the Christ Child in the crib and to singing about him in the carols. But let us also look forward to seeing him in glory.

Let us be prepared on this Feast of Christ the King to see him in the hungry, the thirsty, the unwelcome stranger, those who are naked and vulnerable, those who have no access to adequate health care, the refugees and asylum seekers facing endless taunts and bullying day-by-day, those who are prisoners, those who have no visitors and those who are lonely and marginalised.

A sculpture of Christ the King at the Church of Christ the King in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 November 2025):

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme is introduced today with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG, who writes:

Since its launch 30 years ago, the Global 16 Days Campaign has brought together over 6,000 organisations across 185 countries, reaching more than 300 million people in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV). I first encountered it when I worked for a grassroots women’s organisation and now, over eight years on, I am pleased that USPG also lend their voice to the campaign. The ‘16 Days’ initiative enables USPG to amplify our commitment to gender justice, raise awareness, and reflect on the progress that our church partners have made in ending gender-based violence.

However, the campaign lives on because there is still so much work to be done in the fight against gender-based violence. These 16 days provide us with an opportunity to reflect on the ongoing reality of GBV across the globe and to consider our responsibility, as Christians, to demand accountability and work towards an end to GBV and discrimination in all areas of life. As we are called to ‘mourn with those who mourn’ (Romans 12: 15), true activism cannot exist without empathy. Yet, mourning alone is not enough – our faith compels us to take action and make a tangible difference for the women and girls who endure injustice.

During these 16 days, I encourage you not only to reflect but also to look within your own communities for ways to practically support survivors of GBV and advocate for an end to discrimination.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 November 2025, Christ the King) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Luke 23: 33-43.

Christ the King in the Selby-Lowndes family war memorial window in Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This Post Communion prayer may be used as the Collect at Morning and Evening Prayer during this week.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Christ the King … an image in this weekend’s notices at the Anglican Church of Saint Thomas in Kefalas, Crete,

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org