Buckland

29. BUCKLAND.

(O.S. 6 in. ^(a)viii. N.E. ^(b)viii. S.E.)

Ecclesiastical

^a (1). Parish Church of St. Andrew, stands at the N.E. corner of the village. The walls of the tower are in courses of flint rubble; the other walls are built of larger and more irregular flints mixed with stone; the dressings are of clunch; the roofs are partly tiled and partly leaded. Salmon (Hist. Herts. 1725) records that in the glass, now destroyed, of a chancel window was the inscription: "Nicholai de Bokeland qui istanc Ecclesiam cum Capella Beatae Mariae construxit Ao Domini 1348." The church at that time probably consisted of the present Chancel and Nave, and a South Chapel or Transept dedicated to St. Mary. The West Tower was added late in the 14th or early in the 15th century, and c. 1480 the South Aisle and South Porch were added, the W. wall of the S. chapel being pulled down, and the space thrown into the aisle.

Architectural Description—The Chancel (26 ft. by 16 ft.) has a modern E. window; in the S. wall are two partly restored 14th-century windows of three lights with tracery, and below these windows, partly cutting into them, a contemporary doorway and a low-side single-light window; the chancel arch, of two chamfered orders with a moulded label, has jambs with attached shafts and rolls, modern bases and moulded bell capitals. The Nave (43 ft. by 18 ft.) has three 14th-century traceried windows of two lights in the N. wall; below the westernmost is a 15th-century blocked doorway. The S. arcade, of three bays, has chamfered and wave-moulded piers with high bases and shallow bell capitals: buried in the E. respond is the E. jamb of the earlier archway which opened into the chapel or S. transept; it is visible on both sides of the wall and resembles the chancel arch in detail; the rest of the arch was destroyed when the present arcade was built c. 1480: the westernmost arch of the arcade is of wider span than the others and has no W. respond, the inner order being carried on a carved corbel. At the E. end of the nave are the corbels for the former rood-loft. The South Aisle (13 ft. wide) has 15th-century E. and W. windows, and two in the S. wall, all of three lights, with tracery; the S. windows are almost entirely restored; below the E. window is a 14th-century string-course; the S. doorway, of late 15th-century date, has been much repaired. The West Tower (13 ft. by 11 ft.) is of three stages with a moulded plinth, diagonal buttresses and embattled parapet; the tower arch is of three orders, moulded on the nave side, and has modern bases and moulded capitals; the W. doorway, partly restored, has moulded jambs and a pointed arch with a label having grotesque stops of late 14th-century character; the W. window is of two lights, of which the mullions and part of the tracery is modern; the two-light windows of the bell-chamber have also been much repaired. The Porch is lighted by side windows; its outer doorway, with a depressed three-centred arch, is of late 15th-century date. The Roof of the aisle contains 15th-century principal timbers with carved foliage bosses.

Fittings—Brasses: in the chancel, of William Langley, Rector, in a cope, 1478: of Alice, wife of John Boteler, Sheriff of London, 1451: of John Gyll, with six sons and indent of four daughters, 1499: to Joan Gyll, inscription, undated: under the communion table, an inscription to Joan, wife of Esdras Bland, Rector, 1648. Font: bowl of Barnack stone, probably 14th-century, but re-cut into an indefinite form; the base of clunch, scraped, apparently old. Glass: in two windows of nave, fragments, 14th-century. Monument: on S. wall of S. aisle, of white alabaster, to Susan Clerke, 1634. Niches: in E. respond of arcade, two shallow rectangular niches back to back; probably once a squint. Piscina: in S.E. corner of aisle, 14th-century, trefoiled. Stoup: in N. wall of nave, E. of the blocked doorway.

Condition—Good; very much restored outside; the ivy growing on the tower may do some damage in the future.

Secular

Homestead Moats

^a(2). S.W. of the church, fragment of a circular moat.

^b(3). In Burhill Wood, a stirrup-shaped, dry ditch, with an entrance on the N.

Condition—Good.