Church Of St John The Baptist (Church Of England)

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a parish church of the Church of England at Aldbury, with origins in the Romanesque period but substantially rebuilt and modified over subsequent centuries.

The nave probably represents the tall nave and aisled chancel of a Romanesque church. Early 14th-century arcades pierce this structure, but a significant structural change occurs before the two easternmost bays. The chancel dates from the early 13th century, following William de Brocland's grant of the church to the Canons of the Priory of St Mary, Missenden in 1203. The north chancel chapel and north aisle are early 14th-century work. The east part of the north aisle was widened early in the 14th century to accommodate a chantry founded in 1335. The west tower and south aisle date from the later 14th century. The south porch and the top stage of the tower are 15th-century additions. In 1575, the Pendley Chapel was formed in the east bay of the south aisle when the Whittingham tomb of 1471 and a stone screen were brought from the dissolved monastery of Ashridge.

Significant restoration took place in 1866 by W. Browning, which removed two plain Romanesque arches from the east end of the north arcade of the nave and built a north vestry. The south porch, with its parvise, was restored in 1871 and repaired again in 1905 along with the tower.

The construction material is flint rubble with coursed flint facing to the nave, tower and aisle; uncoursed flint to the chancel, porch and northeast vestry. Totternhoe Stone dressing and plinth have been much replaced by Bath Stone during the 19th-century restoration. Metal roofs of low pitch slate cover the vestry.

The plan comprises a parish church with a low chancel, north chapel, clerestoried nave, north and south aisles, a south porch and a tall slender west tower that contrasts dramatically with the horizontal lines of the rest of the building. The early dating of the nave is based on its tall narrow proportions and on evidence from 19th-century painting (photographed in the National Monument Record) showing the Romanesque two-bay arcade on the north side, which was removed during restoration. An external drawing by Buckler (held in the Hertfordshire Record Office) shows a wide semi-circular arch in the east wall above the level of the chancel; this has been replaced by a pointed niche with hood mould. A doorway and stair of uncertain date are positioned high up on the west end wall of the nave.

The square-ended chancel has corner buttresses, as does the north aisle. The south aisle and tower have diagonal corner buttresses.

The 13th-century chancel contains a narrow lancet window with an outer rebate and wide internal splay in the north wall; traces of diaper wall painting on the splay were noted around 1910 by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. Below this is a 4-centred 15th-century arched recess, probably intended for an Easter Sepulchre. A small lancet serves as a low-side window on the south. A 3-light east window in Decorated style has been restored. A 2-light south window in 14th-century style and a plain south doorway complete the fenestration. A squint from the southwest corner opens through to the south aisle.

Inside the chancel, a gambrel roof is expressed internally as a five-bay waggon roof with moulded ribs, carved bosses and carved angels serving as supports. Minton tiles form the floor, with steps to the altar. The chancel arch has two hollow chamfered orders with half-octagonal responds with similar caps, part of which are cut away, and moulded bases. Two bays of the north arcade into the chapel are 19th-century work with stiff-leaf capitals. A marble and alabaster reredos was installed in 1891.

The north chancel chapel, known as the Leeds or Aldbury mortuary chapel, was originally entered by an early 14th-century west archway which is now closed by gates. It was used as a vestry during the 18th and 19th centuries before a dedicated vestry was added to the north. The floor is laid with Minton tiles and raised two steps above the north aisle. A pointed cinquefoil-headed piscina and an ogee and trefoil-headed sedile of around 1400 occupy the south wall. The north window contains two lights and the east window three lights, both with renewed tracery. A Purbeck marble altar tomb bears the brasses of Sir Ralph Verney, who died in 1546, his wife, 12 children and 4 shields; this was brought from Ashridge in 1575. On the north wall is a monument to Thomas Hyde (died 1570) and his son (died 1580), crafted from alabaster and coloured marble with a broken pediment supported by three Corinthian columns on a bracketed base. It features marble skulls, fine strapwork and is inscribed 'DESPICE FORMAN. RESPICE FINEM'. A refined wall monument on the west wall commemorates Thomas Hyde, who died in 1665, with an inscribed black marble panel set in a moulded white marble shouldered architrave featuring trusses and a segmental pediment to the entablature. The base is moulded and features a carved head with wings between garlanded brackets in high relief.

The nave consists of five bays with early 14th-century pointed arcades of two hollow chamfered orders and moulded caps to octagonal piers. One pier in the south arcade consists of two responds set back to back, defining the two eastern bays opposite the two 19th-century bays of the north arcade, which were inserted in place of two plain round arches. Three tall 2-light clerestorey windows occupy each side, with quatrefoils in the heads. The roof is six bays of low-pitched open timber with old cambered tie-beams, collars and queen-posts supporting a ridge beam and one purlin to each slope, with flat-laid rafters. Under the east respond on the north arcade is a small vertical figure brass and label to John Dawers, who died in 1478. Nearby stands a 16th-century wooden lectern with a slender octagonal shaft, cross base, moulded base and capital, a pitched two-sided desk-top and applied buttress-like strips at the angles. A simple 19th-century pulpit at the south of the chancel arch has a stone base and circular wooden top.

A wider chantry chapel at the east end of the north aisle features a canopied 14th-century niche in the east wall and a north window of three 14th-century trefoil lights with a deeper 15th-century light added at the east end of the window. The roof is moulded across two bays. The buttressed north aisle extends for three bays and contains a medieval encaustic tile floor with a tapering coffin slab set into the floor. A carved stone corbel of uncertain age has been set into the wall. The roof spans seven bays with moulding, kneebraces, wall posts and stone corbels. Two square-headed north windows of two trefoil-headed lights and a plain north door provide light. To the west of the door is early 16th-century German stained glass depicting the Crucifixion and Christ of Piety, probably from Ashridge, with 15th-century original English canopies in the heads. A 2-light traceried window to the west of the aisle has a panelled pew from Stocks House below and wall monuments to John and Hannah Duncombe (died 1728 and 1710 respectively) and John and Elizabeth Duncombe (died 1746 and 1712 respectively). These monuments feature similar pilastered panels with entablature, wreathed urns, coloured marble inlay and painted cartouches at the base. A parish chest stands beside the north door.

The south aisle roof spans six plus two bays in plainer timber than the north aisle. The two eastern bays are treated separately, corresponding to the fifth bay of the arcade, which was enclosed in 1575 as the Pendley Chapel for Edmund Verney. The Whittingham and Verney tomb was moved here from Ashridge together with the stone parclose screen; a brass plate of around 1588 on the south wall recounts this history. A large chest tomb features a moulded base, sides panelled with shields and weepers, a gadrooned edge to the slab and full-length figures of Sir Robert Whittingham, who died in 1471, in plate armour with a wild man at his feet, and his wife with a hind. The floor is laid with medieval encaustic tiles. A 15th-century tall Perpendicular clunch traceried stone screen spans the north and west, battlemented with an entrance from the north; brackets for funeral helmets are now missing. The east wall contains a monument to Sir Richard Anderson and his wife (died 1699 and 1698 respectively) with lively busts, pilastered with an open segmental pediment, a central pilaster, a panelled base and a central projection with inscription. A tablet on the south wall commemorates the Harcourt family. A 4-light square-headed trefoil south window is complemented by two further 2-light square-headed trefoil windows in the south wall and a traceried 2-light window to the west. A stone stair begins in the aisle, leading to the upper room of the south porch. A small organ of 1866 by Gray and Davidson now occupies the west arch of the south arcade.

The west tower, reached by four steps from the nave, has thick walls with a tall 14th-century arch of three hollow chamfered orders dying into the jambs. The floor is laid with medieval tiles. A stone font of 1866 with serpentine shafts around the base stands here. The tall three-stage tower has a straight parapet and 2-light 15th-century style cinquefoil belfry openings with a quatrefoil in the head. A west door and window are also present.