St Michael and All Angels, Hughenden | |
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51°39′6.45″N0°45′9.36″W / 51.6517917°N 0.7526000°W | |
Location | Hughenden Valley, Buckinghamshire |
Country | United Kingdom |
Denomination | Church of England |
Website | www |
History | |
Status | Parish church |
Founded | c. 1100–1135 |
Founder(s) | Geoffrey de Clinton |
Associated people | Benjamin Disraeli, member 1848–1881 Church restored 1874 and 1890 by Sir Arthur William Blomfield |
Architecture | |
Heritage designation | Listed Grade: II* |
Style | Early English, extended Victorian Gothic |
Administration | |
Province | Canterbury |
Diocese | Oxford |
Archdeaconry | Buckingham |
Deanery | Wycombe |
Parish | Hughenden |
St Michael and All Angels' Church is a Grade: II* listed [1] [2] Anglican church in the Hughenden Valley, Buckinghamshire, England, near to High Wycombe. It is closely associated with the nearby Hughenden Manor and the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli who is buried in the churchyard.
The church stands on land owned by the National Trust but the church and churchyard belong to the Church of England.
According to early records, a church existed on this site in the 12th century, built by Geoffrey de Clinton between 1100 and 1135. Monks established a small priory here in the building which is today used as a parish hall, Church House. [3] The church itself is mediaeval in origin and this original building now forms the chancel and north chapel of the present building.
In 1848 Benjamin Disraeli purchased Hughenden Manor. [4] The church was restored and extended between 1874 and 1890. Disraeli was British Prime Minister twice, in 1868 and 1874–80, and was made Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876. He died in 1881 and was buried in the family vault along with his wife Lady Beaconsfield (died 1872) which is located at the west wall of the church. [5] Royal protocol did not permit Queen Victoria to attend the private funeral, but she visited the tomb a few days later to pay her respects. [6] [7]
The exterior walls of St Michael and All Angels are of flint with stone dressings and the roofs are tiled.
The oldest part of the church is the chancel, which was formed from the original mediaeval body of the church. When the church extension work was carried out, the floor was covered with ceramic tiles designed by Edward William Godwin and the walls decorated with 1881 wall paintings in the Aesthetic Movement style by Heaton, Butler and Bayne that depict the Nativity, the Four Evangelists and the Prophets. [8]
A memorial to Disraeli was erected by Queen Victoria on the north side of the chancel following his death. It was the only memorial to be erected by a reigning monarch to one of her subjects in an English parish church. The inscription reads:
To the dear and honoured memory of Benjamin Earl of Beaconsfield.
This memorial is placed by his grateful sovereign and friend Victoria R.I. "Kings loveth him that speaketh right"— Inscription on Disraeli memorial, 27 February 1882
The Banner and Insignia of the Order of the Garter hanging beside the memorial originate from St George's Chapel, Windsor.
Among the stained-glass windows are works by Thomas Willement and Clayton and Bell, including their 1881 East Window depicting Christ in Majesty which was installed as another memorial to Disraeli. The ornately carved marble and alabaster pulpit (c. 1891) is the work of Thomas Earp in the High Victorian style and features effigies of archangels in Gothic arches. [8]
The memorials in the church include three recumbent effigies of knights, one lying cross-legged; although apparently in the style of the 13th century, the effigies have been ascertained to date from the 16th century and are thought to have been sculpted as fabricated evidence of the pedigree of the Wellesbourne family as descendants of Simon de Montfort. [8]
St. Michael and All Angels' Church featured in the title sequence of Gerry Anderson's 1969 Supermarionation/Live Action television series The Secret Service .
It also featured briefly in the film Johnny English , in the funeral scene where a bomb kills all of Britain's secret agents.
Judi Dench filmed a scene from the film Victoria & Abdul in the grounds of the church – another scene was filmed in the manor house.
Mary Anne Disraeli, 1st Viscountess Beaconsfield was a British peeress and society figure who was the wife of the British statesman Benjamin Disraeli.
Sir George Gilbert Scott, largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started his career as a leading designer of workhouses. Over 800 buildings were designed or altered by him.
Earl of Beaconsfield, of Hughenden in the County of Buckingham, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1876 for Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, a favourite of Queen Victoria. Victoria favoured Disraeli's Tory policies over those of his Liberal rival, William Ewart Gladstone. Disraeli had also promoted the Royal Titles Act 1876 that had given Victoria the title of Empress of India. The subsidiary title of the earldom was Viscount Hughenden, of Hughenden in the County of Buckingham, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Beaconsfield is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, 23+1⁄2 miles northwest of central London and 16 miles southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within five miles : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High Wycombe.
Hughenden Valley is an extensive village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, just to the north of High Wycombe. The civil parish is still named Hughenden as of 2024. It is almost 8,000 acres (32 km2) in size, divided mainly between arable and wooded land. It is situated 3 miles (4.8 km) north of central Wycombe, 12.5 miles (20.1 km) south of the county town of Aylesbury and some 35 miles (56 km) west-northwest of London.
Hughenden Manor, Hughenden, Buckinghamshire, England, is a Victorian mansion, with earlier origins, that served as the country house of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield. It is now owned by the National Trust and open to the public. It sits on the brow of the hill to the west of the main A4128 road that links Hughenden to High Wycombe.
Little Missenden is a village and civil parish on the River Misbourne in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills, about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Great Missenden and 3 miles (5 km) west of Amersham. The village lies on the River Misbourne in the Misbourne valley.
Pitchford is a small village in the English county of Shropshire. It is located between Cantlop and Acton Burnell and stands on an affluent of the River Severn. Pitchford takes its name from a bituminous spring/pitch in the village, located near The Row Brook.
St Michael and All Angels Church overlooks Market Place in the town of Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Macclesfield. It forms a team parish with three other Macclesfield churches: All Saints, St Peter's and St Barnabas'. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.
Coningsby Ralph Disraeli, was a British Conservative politician, and MP for Altrincham.
Primrose Day marked the anniversary of the death of the British statesman and prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, on 19 April 1881. The day was marked each year into the 1920s, with arrangements of primroses left at Disraeli's tomb at St Michael and All Angels Church, Hughenden and his statue in Parliament Square and many supporters wearing primroses as buttonholes, garlands, and hat decorations.
St Michael and All Angels' Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Thornton, Buckinghamshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands to the north of the village, in the grounds of Thornton Hall, to the east of the River Ouse, some 4 miles (6 km) northeast of Buckingham.
St Michael's Church at Chenies, Buckinghamshire, is a Grade I listed Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Oxford in England. It is not of great architectural interest but stands in an attractive position in the Chess Valley near the Chenies Manor House. The church is famous for its Bedford Chapel, the mausoleum of the Russell family which is private and not open to the public.
Sarah Brydges Willyams, born Sarah Mendez da Costa, was an English supporter and confidante of Benjamin Disraeli.
Warfield Parish Church is a Grade II* listed building. It is located on Church Lane, Warfield, in Berkshire, England, ¾ of a mile north-east of the modern centre of the village. It is dedicated to the archangel Michael. The area around the church has been designated a conservation area since 1974 primarily to protect the character and nature of this historical building.
St Mary's Church is an Anglican church in Guildford in Surrey, England; the church's Anglo-Saxon tower is the oldest surviving structure in the town. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the author Lewis Carroll, preached here and his funeral was held in the church in 1898. Coming under the Diocese of Guildford, the church has been Grade I listed since 1953.
Charles Mawer (1839–1903) was an architectural sculptor, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. He was the son of sculptors Robert and Catherine Mawer and the cousin of William Ingle. He was apprenticed to his father, and worked within the partnership Mawer and Ingle alongside his cousin William and his own mother between 1860 and 1871, and then ran the stone yard himself until he formed a partnership with his fellow-apprentice Benjamin Payler in 1881. Following that date, his whereabouts and death are unknown. His last major work for Mawer and Ingle was Trent Bridge, where he carved alone, following the death of William Ingle. He is noted for his work on the rebuilding of the mediaeval Church of St Michael and All Angels, Barton-le-Street, completed in 1871, where he repaired and recreated damaged and missing Romanesque carvings, and for his carving on William Swinden Barber's 1875 Church of St Matthew, Lightcliffe. Charles' last known work ornaments another Barber church: the 1880 Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Killinghall. Charles was a member of the Mawer Group of Leeds architectural sculptors, which included those mentioned above, plus Matthew Taylor.
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