Flaunden

St Mary Magdalen, lnk, is a rather effective brick and flint building which also (like nearby Bourne End) claims to be GG Scott's first church. Since it was built in 1838 its claim seems the more plausible - Bourne End being built in 1853.

I liked it a lot.

ST MARY MAGDALENE, in Flaunden village; 1838. Sir George Gilbert Scott’s first building, described by him in his Memoirs as ‘the poor barn designed for my uncle King’ who was then vicar of Latimer (GR). Flint and brick dressings. Lancet windows in the Commissioners’ tradition, timber bellcote. - FONT. Octagonal bowl, Perp, with quatrefoil decoration. - PLATE. Chalice and Paten, 1576; Salver, 1731.

Flaunden. The view from the church gate over the fields and woods is delightful, but the old church has given way to a new one built at the beginning of the Victorian Era by Sir Gilbert Scott. The three old bells have been hung in the tower, and here is the Elizabethan chalice, and the bowl of the 15th-century font. But all that remains of the old church is the broken wall about a mile away among nettles and pine trees by the cress-beds of the River Chess. It was in the form of a Greek cross with equal arms and of 13th-century origin, and attached to the west end was a small priest’s house. Fifty years ago there were still traces of 13th-century wall-paintings. The ruination of this little church is a sad loss. We see the outline of the tiny church, not more than 12 yards long, and piercing the wall is a low 700-year-old arch and a three-light window of the 15th century. Yet here services are sometimes held for the sake of other days, and the little congregation lifts up its eyes to see all about it the wide fields rolling on to the horizon.

Flickr.