NORTH CRAWLEY: ST FIRMIN – the 15th-century screen, with images of prophets, saints and kings, is Buckinghamshire’s only such screen to remain complete

      HITCHAM † St Mary

      4m/6km W. of Slough

      OS SU920825 GPS 51.5347N, 0.6750W

      This small church has an admirable mixture of materials and styles, lending both texture and interest: much of it is flint, with a 16th-century brick tower and chalk and plaster nave. The chancel arch is Norman, and the chancel itself a 1330–40 rebuilding. The chancel windows retain much of their original glass, depicting the Nine Orders of Angels and the Four Evangelists. Good monuments and brasses; the whole set among trees in a well-kept churchyard surrounded by ancient tawny brick walls.

      IBSTONE † St Nicholas

      6m/10km W. of High Wycombe

      OS SU756923 GPS 51.6248N, 0.9092W

      This small, intriguing church is sited away from the main village, overlooking the beautiful Turville Valley. It is primitive, mainly 12th- and 13th-century, and has a Norman S. doorway, weather-boarded bell-turret and Perpendicular pulpit.

      IVINGHOE † St Mary the Virgin

      8m/13km E. of Aylesbury

      OS SP945161 GPS 51.8362N, 0.6291W

      A noble cruciform church, 13th–15th century, St Mary’s is set in a large churchyard. Particularly fine are the stiff-leaf capitals of the nave arcades, the carved Apostles on the roof wall-posts, and the poppyheads on the benches, which include a mermaid and some haunting Green Men.

      LATHBURY † All Saints

      3m/5km N. of Milton Keynes

      OS SP874449 GPS 52.0964N, 0.7248W

      Another dead-end place down by the Ouse just outside Newport Pagnell, All Saints church is dark and mysterious, with fragments of painting and robust carvings from its Norman past. Outside it is pleasantly embattled with a good stone texture.

      LILLINGSTONE DAYRELL † St Nicholas

      4m/6km N. of Buckingham

      OS SP705398 GPS 52.0523N, 0.9729W

      Reached by a long cart track, this interesting church has an 11th-century chancel and tower arches. The tower is 13th-century, as is the chancel which contains a curious Easter Sepulchre, Dayrell brasses, a Renaissance tomb chest, old tiles and a funeral pall of 1699.

      LITTLE HAMPDEN

       † dedication unknown

      7m/12km S. of Aylesbury

      OS SP860035 GPS 51.7241N, 0.7556W

      Humble and withdrawn among a few cottages and scattered farms, its simple interior is decorated with 13th- to 15th-century wall-paintings, including the earliest St Christopher in England. It leaves a great impression of the medieval hamlet church. The timbered, two-storey N. porch is unique in Bucks. There is a tombstone by Eric Gill to his neighbour Mary Bernadette Nuttgens.

      LITTLE KIMBLE † All Saints

      4m/7km S. of Aylesbury

      OS SP826064 GPS 51.7504N, 0.8041W

      Small and undistinguished externally, with a little W. bell-turret, All Saints stands amidst beeches and greenery on the edge of Chequers park. Inside are to be found, artistically, the best wall-paintings in Bucks., including St Christopher, St James major, St George (a notable standing figure), St Lawrence, St Francis preaching to the birds (only two in England), St Clare, St Bernard, and assorted ecclesiastics, plus part of a Doom, and a life of St Margaret and St Catherine, all early 14th-century. There is also a square of Chertsey tiles under a mat in the chancel, with enchanting scenes from the life of King Mark of Cornwall and other Arthurian romances.

      LITTLE MARLOW † St John Baptist

      2m/3km N.E. of Marlow

      OS SU874878 GPS 51.5825N, 0.7399W

      St John Baptist is in a good Thames-side village at a dead end and consequently almost unspoiled. The church has the unusual feature of a triple-gabled E. elevation, reminiscent of Devonian or Cornish churches; and has a light, limewashed interior. The chancel shows good 13th-century detail; the S. aisle and chapel were ‘beautified’ by Sir Nicholas Ledewich, so the inscription on his tomb tells us, about 1430.

      LITTLE MISSENDEN † St John Baptist

      3m/4km W. of Amersham

      OS SU920989 GPS 51.6821N, 0.6694W

      The church stands by the manor house and a number of pleasant houses in the village. Externally it is very picturesque; of flint and brick with a dormer window in the nave roof. An exquisite E. window has three double-shafted lancets. The church is principally renowned for its series of 13th- and 15th-century wall-paintings, which include St Christopher, a vivid Martyrdom of St Catherine and a Crucifixion.

      MONKS RISBOROUGH † St Dunstan

      Adjoins Princes Risborough to N.

       OS SP812044 GPS 51.7326N, 0.8246W

      The general effect of this church is especially pleasing from the exterior, as it stands in a good churchyard with high hedges and trees and the old Rectory hard by. The main part of the structure is 15th-century; inside there are good things to see, such as the 12th-century font, 14th-century tower arch and brass, a somewhat reduced painted screen and remains of old glass.

      NETHER WINCHENDON † St Nicholas

      4m/6km N.E. of Thame

      OS SP732122 GPS 51.8042N, 0.9388W

      One of the most attractive church interiors in the county and entirely unspoiled, in a rural village setting, at the foot of a steep hill. The structure is medieval, but the atmosphere is of the 18th century, all lit by brass Jacobean candelabra, with gallery and high pews, hatchments, sentences and a Jacobean three-tier pulpit. Recent restorations to the nave floor, gallery stairs, pews and pulpit are sensitive and of fine quality. Notice an unusual modern memorial to Lieut-Colonel Francis Tyringham Higgins-Bernard, a 20th-century version of a medieval knight’s tomb.

      NORTH CRAWLEY † St Firmin

      6m/10km N.E. of Milton Keynes

      OS SP926446 GPS 52.0924N, 0.6485W

      An important medieval church, it was restored in the 18th century. The rebuilding of the chancel in the 13th century is recorded by a rare carved inscription outside the E. window. The nave has a S. arcade of c. 1200 with good carved capitals and a 14th-century N. arcade. The 15th-century screen is the only painted one to remain complete in the county; the figures on the panels are those of prophets, kings and saints.

      NORTH MARSTON

      † Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

      6m/10km N. of Aylesbury

      OS SP777227 GPS 51.8974N, 0.8721W

      The church is associated with John Schorne,