Church History
The Church of the Assumption of St. Mary the Virgin During the mid nineteenth century the church underwent a huge restoration, undertaken by John Gellibrand Hubbard, the first Baron Addington, who also, finding the whole estate to have fallen into disrepair, rebuilt the Rectory and many of the other buildings, so that now, most of the buildings are of Victorian origin and all the earlier timbered and thatched houses have gone.
The church was restored by G.E. Street in 1857-8, the building work being undertaken by a Mr Tibbitts of Buckingham. More restoration work took place in 1926-30 by Sir Charles Nicholson for Mr Smith-Bingham. The Church has a Nave, Chancel, North and South Aisles, Vestry, Porch and crenellated Tower. At the right hand side of the main Altar, is a twelfth century capital and shaft which has been converted into a piscina. This had originally been stored in the vestry together with the stone slab which has been let into the Altar. The date of these two artefacts suggests that a church stood on this site in the twelfth century, and we know that the earliest Rector, when records began in 1222, was Henry de Hogginshall. The Chancel Arch and the Tower are original fourteenth century, the Tower has unusual pillared supports. It was at this time that the North and South Aisles would have been added, and according to the records, in 1490 the tower was restored. In 1858 rebuilding work took place, which included the Porch, Aisles, and Chancel and the addition of a Vestry. The font is nineteenth century. The windows of the Chancel are in the style of the fourteenth century, and either side of the Nave are restored fourteenth century arcades of three pointed arches supported by octagonal piers. The Clerestory windows are circular and have glass contemporary with the nineteenth century but the openings may be fourteenth century. The West Window is of two cinquefoil lights under a four centred head and is probably fifteenth century and it is likely that it was inserted at the time the Tower was restored.
The windows, although originally recorded as having plain glass, now have the largest collection of Netherlandish glass in any church in the country, and are thought to have been collected by the first Lord Addington. The East Window and Clerestory glass is Victorian.
The main Altar, has let into it a very rare "Super Altare" probably of the fourteenth century. It was discovered during the nineteenth century restoration, together with six books walled up in the Chancel, where they had been placed 300 years earlier at the time of the trouble between the King and Church. The Books are an ancient and valuable record of their times. The principal monuments in the church are to the Busby family.
The church now has three bells in use, by John Warner and son 1870, Chandler 1656, and R.A. 1626.
The organ was built in 1857.
Samuel Lewis's 1831 "Topographical Dictionary of England" describes the village of Addington as:
ADDINGTON, a parish in the hundred and county of BUCKINGHAM, 1¾ mile (W.N.W.) from Winslow, containing 89 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Buckingham, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £9.9.7., and in the patronage of John Poulett, Esq. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. A small sum of money was bequeathed by Ann Busby, in 1736, for educating and apprenticing poor children. On the border of the parish is a place called "Gallows Gap", where, in the reign of Edward III, a gallows was erected by one of the family of Molines, who, as lord of the barony, possessed the power of trying and executing capital offenders.
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