Church Micro 15095...Mentmore
This cache has been placed to bring you to the church of St Mary in Mentmore.
THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE PUBLISHED COORDINATES. The cache is not in the churchyard.
Cache location changed 26/01/26
Since the time of the Domesday Survey the church of St. Mary the Virgin has probably been the one fixed and stable feature of the village. According to the “Victoria County History of Buckinghamshire” there was a church on this site in the 12th century, probably built in the simple Norman style and consisting of a chancel and a nave. It is known that one moiety (half-share) of the church was given to St. Bartholomew’s Priory, Smithfield, in 1202 and that by 1220 they were also in possession of the second half.
The north and south aisles were built, presumably under their direction, in 1220. The font is thought to be 13th century and is therefore contemporary to this early period of our church’s history. The priory presented the first recorded Vicar, Geraldus Capellanus, in 1234 and the patronage remained in their possession until the dissolution.
A major phase of re-building, in the Perpendicular style, began in the second half of the fourteenth century when the north aisle was rebuilt, with the rebuilding of the south aisle following sometime during the fifteenth century. By the end of the fifteenth century (1490) the Tower and Clerestory were being built and the nave arcades rebuilt using much of the original material. The present five bells were installed in the tower in the late seventeenth century. The original bell frame is still in place and, together with the bells, was made by the Chandler family between 1668 and 1669.
The church was altered yet again in 1858 when restoration work was carried out for Lord Rothschild under the supervision of George Stokes. At this time the chancel and vestry were rebuilt, the north aisle altered and the first heating system probably installed. Finally, the exterior of the building was re-clad using Ancaster stone in the early part of the twentieth century.
No further major restoration or rebuilding work was carried out on the church until the 1970s when the tower was strengthened to enable the bells to be rung (after a silence of over forty years) for the wedding of Lord Rosebery’s daughter. Then in the mid 1990s the bells were completely refurbished and a mezzanine floor and glass screen added in the tower, all by local volunteers.
By 1995, nearly 140 years since the last major renovations, the church was once again found to be in need of major repairs and so started a new period of restoration and repair beginning with the renewal of the south aisle and nave lead roofs and the associated timberwork. Further renovation work was carried out in 2000/2001 at which time the south east chancel buttress was rebuilt, a French drain and new soak-aways were installed on the north side of the church, new guttering and downspouts were installed on both the vestry and chancel and the floors beneath two of the banks of pews were completely renewed.
The cache is placed is not in the churchyard.
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