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St Lawrence's Church, West Wycombe
The highlight of a day's 'Church Crawling' - 'that odd thing on the hill with the golden ball'! The base of the tower and the walls of the chancel are medieval, the rest rebuilt as a classical rectangle (Pevsner calls this Egyptian!) with a mix of rich plasterwork ornamentation and trompe l'oeil work. This church was rebuilt by Sir Francis Dashwood, the golden ball on the tower having seats inside for ten people! Memorials litter the chancel, and here too another very unusual Font, a pole with serpent and a collection of birds around the top as if on a bird table. The Churchwarden in attendance told us they place a gold or silver bowl on the stand amongst the birds for baptisms. A Fresco of the Last Supper includes a Judas "whose eye follows you wherever you go" and it does!! Beyond the church on the edge of the hill and with the long straight road below from High Wycombe leading to it is the Dashwood Family mausoleum. This is quite a spooky place, with urns in niches containing the remains of family members, and others with faces to various angles seem to watch you. (Commentary provided by Phil Draper) |
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Image contributed by Phil Draper from 4th March 2004.
URL of this page: http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/BKM/WestWycombe/StLawrence1.html
[Created 18 Mar 2004. Last updated 31 Oct 2007 - 18:13 by Rosemary Lockie]