District: Milton Keynes (Unitary Authority) Parish: Simpson and Ashland National Grid Reference: SP 88333 36199 Details 721/1/69 SIMPSON ROAD 28-JUN-54 SIMPSON CHURCH OF ST THOMAS GV II* DATES/ARCHITECTS: Crossing tower is late C13 or earlier, the rest of the building was rebuilt c.1330-40. It was restored in 1873, 1892 by J O Scott and again in 1904-5, also to designs by Scott
The tower has an embattled parapet, rebuilt in the C19, and two light late C14 bell openings
The rest of the church is largely C14 in appearance, but has been heavily restored and partially rebuilt
The C15 door to the former vestry survives
There is a large, blocked, probably C15 window in the S transept W wall
The nave has renewed C14 windows with intersecting tracery, and a large C15-style W window, almost renewed
The S porch has a C15 or C16 outer arch and C14 S door with continuous mouldings and an ogee hood-mould with head stops and foliate finial
The outer orders are continuously chamfered, and the inner orders stand on half-round attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases, probably C13. The tower is noticeably narrower than the nave, transepts and chancel, and in the nave the W tower arch is flanked by doors into the transepts with shallow relieving arches over pointed heads on shafted jambs
Both transepts are now closed to the tower by timber screens; that to the N has been divided into toilets and service facilities, but retains an early C15 E door to the former vestry and a small, blocked opening of the late C15 or early C16 that was formerly an external squint
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES font, plain round tub shape with a stepped base, C12 or C13. The cover is probably C17 and has a turned post and shaped brackets
C14 piscina with a trefoiled head in the N transept, cinquefoiled piscina in the S transept, and a piscina in the chancel partially blocked by the raised floor
Unusual and interesting Royal Arms of 1742 painted directly onto the plaster over the chancel arch; the outer GR2 was changed to ER2 in 1953 for the Coronation of Elizabeth II. Some C19 and early C20 glass, the most notable a figure of St Nicholas in the NE nave window
In the chancel, a group of monuments to the Hanmer family
The most notable are Job Hanmer, d. 1738, an architectural wall tablet by Bayliss; and Sir Walden Hanmer, d.1789, by John Bacon, a large monument with a white marble mourning figure of Justice in a roundel and an achievement of arms against a black obelisk; white marble base with fluted columns
C15 nave roof with hammer beam trusses at the E and W ends and three intermediate trusses with arched braces to the collars
Transept roofs of the C17, with plain trusses and reused beams
The first mention of the church is in the early C13, and the earliest surviving fabric is the late C13 tower arches, although the font is probably significantly earlier
The church was wholly rebuilt around the tower in the second quarter of the C14, and there were further works in the late middle ages including reroofing the nave, building the S porch and the former N vestry, now demolished
There was additional work in the C17, when the transepts were reroofed and the font cover made
The church was restored in stages in the late C19 and early C20. Work included underpinning the tower, restoring the transepts and rebuilding the chancel roof in 1873; the E wall of the chancel was wholly rebuilt in 1904; the S transept S window was entirely renewed in 1999. The church was amalgamated with four others, not all Anglican, to form the Woughton Ecumenical parish in 1977. * Its unusual C15 nave roof is of particular note * It possesses interesting fittings, such as the C13 font with C17 cover, and monuments.
SOURCES Pevsner, N and Williamson, E., Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire (1994),549 Castle, S., Ecumenical Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Simpson, Buckinghamshire: A Brief History and guide (2007) RCHME: Buckinghamshire II (1913), 261-3 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Thomas, Simpson, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Cruciform parish church, with slender C13 tower and wide nave, transepts and chancel of the C14, retaining much Medieval fabric.