Fenny Stratford

133. FENNY STRATFORD.

(O.S. 6 in. xv. S.W.)

Ecclesiastical

(1). Parish Church of St. Martin, stands in the middle of the town. The church built in 1726 is now incorporated in a large modern church as the N. aisle.

Some old glass in one of the windows is noteworthy.

Fittings—Glass: In N. aisle—in three lights of N.W. window, fragments, of various designs including a crown, foliage, heads of a Roman soldier and of a woman, and a lozenge with the initials 'W.R.', also two shields (surrounded by strap-work and other ornament), Fortescue (4 quarters) impaling Stonor (13 quarters) and Fortescue, impaling Boleyn (6 quarters), all 17th-century, rest of glass in lights, 18th-century.

Condition—Good.

Secular

(2). Fish-pond or reservoir, near the site of an old house, about 900 yards S.E. of the church, with strong retaining banks.

Condition—Good, but now dry.

(3). House and Storehouses (of a former brewery), on the S. side of Watling Street, 40 yards E. of the church, were probably originally one building. The walls are of timber and brick; the roofs are tiled. The house, formerly an inn, is now disused, except a covered gateway at the W. end, which forms part of the Bull Hotel and opens into a courtyard at the back of the hotel. A room over the gateway has an arched truss in the roof, indicating a 15th-century origin. The storehouses are of L-shaped plan; the shorter wing, on the S. side of the courtyard, projects towards the W., and is probably of 16th-century or earlier date; the longer wing, on the E. side of the courtyard, projects towards the N., and is of the 17th century; at the N. end it is connected with the house by a modern building. The room over the gateway has walls of old timber and brick, and E. of it is a chimney stack with square shafts set diagonally, built probably of early 17th-century brick; the rest of the house has been altered; at the E. end is a gable covered with plaster. On the N. and S. sides of the W. wing of the storehouses, the upper storey is timber-framed with brick filling; the lower storey and the E. end are of modern brick; the W. end is timber-framed. The E. and W. walls of the N. wing are timber-framed, each of five bays, with modern brick filling and with modern boarding over the timbers; in each bay of the W. wall is the blocked opening of an original window, apparently of three lights.

Interior:—In the room over the gateway is an old fireplace, partly blocked. Below the ceiling are the braced hammer-beam and wall-posts of an original roof-truss; the upper part of the truss, with an arched collar-beam, is accessible through a trap door in the ceiling; the principals are cut away above the collar-beams, and the roof is now gabled at right angles to the truss. The W. wing of the storehouses has, at the E. end of the ground floor, old ceiling-beams with diagonal beams running into the angles; at the N.E. corner is an original angle-post with a moulded capital; it partly supports a moulded bressumer, showing that the upper storey formerly projected at the E. end; timbers indicating a similar projection on the N. side are also visible. The upper storey is divided into four bays by the queen-post trusses of the roof; the S. wall of the second bay from the E. end contains a number of circular stones, about 1 ft. in diameter by 1¾ in. thick, of uncertain origin. The N. wing has, on the ground floor, original ceiling-beams; the W. wall is partly timber-framed, with posts apparently of earlier date than the rest of the walling; near the S. end is a blocked doorway with a moulded post, and further N. in the same wall is another moulded post, both apparently of early 16th-century date. The upper storey is divided into five bays by the roof-trusses, of queen-post form; the middle truss is of late 15th or early 16th-century date, older and better constructed than the others, and has a cambered and moulded tie-beam with curved struts. In the W. wall are visible the wood frames of the 17th-century windows. At the S. end is the framing of an old partition. On the W. wall of the northernmost bay is part of a painted plaster frieze, of the 17th century, representing a cat and fiddle, birds and foliage.

Condition—Fairly good.

Aylesbury Street, W. side

(4). 'The Bazaar' (see Plate, p. 74), originally a farmhouse, now shops, is of two storeys with basement and attic, built of timber and brick in the 17th century, but now entirely covered with cement and much altered. The only original details now visible externally are two chimney stacks of thin bricks and a dormer window of four lights; the central stack has eight square shafts, some of them 'dummies', set diagonally on a square base with three rectangular panels on each side; the shafts are moulded and have oversailing moulded courses; the S. stack is similar to the other, and has four shafts on an L-shaped base.

Interior:—In the basement are some old chamfered beams. The large fireplaces now boarded up are visible in the shops.

Condition—Good; much altered.

(5). Cottages, a range of six, 250 yards S.S.W. of the church, are of two storeys, built in the 17th century; the three southern cottages are apparently of earlier date than the others. The roofs are thatched. At the back the walls retain the original timber-framing and most of the wattle-and-daub filling, but in front the filling is of 18th-century and modern brick, and two cottages have been entirely re-fronted with brick.

Interiors:—The ceiling-beams of the ground floor and the timbers of the roofs, with purlins and wind-braces, are visible.

Condition—Poor.