HARLINGTON

The present church is essentially of the early to mid C14th, with the nave and aisles apparently earlier than the chancel. Both are in the Decorated style. Documentary evidence indicates that there was a chapel or church here in the period 1174-1181.

Recent excavations have disclosed the foundations of a buttress at the east end of the chancel which may have belonged to the earlier church. Later additions to the fabric include the Cl5th west tower and south porch and the vestry of c.1500 on the north side of the chancel. In the early Cl6th, the walls of the aisles were heightened and the body of the church re-roofed in its present form. The Edwardian inventory of 1552 noted “the churche and porche leaded and the chaunsell tyled and the stepull tyled”.

Early stained glass in the easternmost window of the north wall of the north aisle in memory of members of the Wingate family was recorded in a drawing of 1634. Chancel repairs for Lady Wentworth are recorded in accounts of 1696-7. Repairs by the parish are documented in the churchwardens’ accounts which survive in a single volume from 1677 to 1918. Dated lead of 1774 recorded at the time of its removal related to roof repairs by John Carte of Ampthill in that year. Extensive repairs costing over £150 were undertaken in 1825-6. The organ - an early instance in a country church - is first mentioned in 1825. The church interior was described by Boissier in 1827 as “snug and comfortable”. He also noted “the east window filled with Modern stained glass”.

The church is said to have undergone a thorough restoration in 1867. The tower was repaired in 1869 by George Muckleston at a cost of £35. Two new stained glass windows by Powell of Whitefriars were installed, the east window in 1876 and the east window of the north aisle in 1885. The chancel roof, of crown-post type, was repaired in 1886 and the open rafters decorated in light blue studded with stars. Archdeacon Bathurst commented on the state of the church and recorded repairs to the nave roof and re-roofing of the vestry in 1888. In 1892 the south porch was restored at the expense of the patron, Major Cooper Cooper, who also had the ancient sundial repaired.