Welcome from our Chairman
The Rt Hon Sir David Lidington KCB CBE
The Rt Hon Sir David Lidington KCB CBE
Buckinghamshire’s churches and chapels have played a central role in the history and community life of the county.
Some parish churches were founded more than 1000 years ago. Others were built to serve growing urban communities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Buckinghamshire has been a place where new religious ideas and denominations have taken root – something reflected in the chapels and meeting houses found in many of our towns and villages.
The church is usually the oldest building in the community and its design, decoration, monuments and memorials both tell the story of generations of local people through the centuries and represent many of our greatest architectural and artistic treasures.
Despite this, churches and chapels receive no state funding but must instead rely on the generosity of their congregations and others locally. Many struggle. Repair and maintenance of ancient, listed buildings is not cheap.
The Buckinghamshire Historic Churches Trust exists to support local communities to maintain and restore their churches so that they can continue to be enjoyed by future generations. The Trust gives repair and restoration grants to churches and chapels throughout the historic county of Buckinghamshire, including Milton Keynes.
We are supported by the generosity of our donors, including the Friends of Buckinghamshire’s Historic Churches and participants and sponsors of the annual Ride and Stride event. The Trust is a registered charity. We have no employees and are entirely managed and run by volunteers.
Can you help us?
We are looking for volunteers to help organise our largest annual fundraiser – Ride + Stride.
For details please email
ridestride@bucks-historic-churches.org
Help raise funds
Our income comes from a variety of events over the course of each year including our annual Ride + Stride held each September.
We want to encourage more people to take part either as walker or a sponsor so we have set up an easy-to-use JustGiving page.
Join us in our Work
The Friends of Buckinghamshire’s Historic Churches support the work of the BHCT. Each year the Friends organise a number of events including a church crawl and an illustrated talk; Friends also have preferential access to the annual Summer Reception.
Protect our Heritage
We make grants to churches and chapels of all denominations in the county of Buckinghamshire.
Many grants are spent on repairing roofs and stonework, not surprising as many of our beautiful churches were built in the 14th century.
Our Churches
As Buckinghamshire is close to London and crossed by the great roads to Bath, Oxford and Chester the county has always been open to new religious ideas and architectural innovations.
The gradual development of church architecture has been classified into a few periods, beginning with the Norman round arches of the 11th & 12th centuries. Next comes Gothic architecture, using the pointed arch that is sub-divided into three periods: Early English in the 13th century; the brief ‘Decorated’ period of the 14th century and the ‘Perpendicular’ style of the 15th century. There was very little church building in the 16th and 17th century.
In the 19th century the Classical style emerged during the rapid expansion of urban centres like High Wycombe and Aylesbury. The early part of the 20th century is the Gothic Revival period where the ‘Decorated’ style eventually won out over the ‘Perpendicular’ style. The rest of the 20th century allowed architects more freedom and many new styles emerged during that time.
Upcoming Events
Annual lecture in St. Mary’s church, Princes Risborough “Heralds and Heraldry : The Picturesque World of Coats of Arms, Chivalry and Ceremony” will be given by Patric Dickinson CVO, Clarenceux King of Arms 2010 - 2021, having worked at the College of Arms in London since 1968. Please download this form here [...]