Roman, Saxon, Norman: 2000 years of history, a unique ensemble of medieval wall paintings, a 'Time Traveller's Treat'.
We are the Anglican Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Little Missenden, part of the Diocese of Oxford, within the Church of England. Our Parish serves the communities of Little Missenden, Hyde Heath and Little Kingshill, nestled in the Chiltern Hills (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), in Buckinghamshire, England.
When you enter the south porch of the church, beneath oak timbers hewn before Columbus set sail for the New World, you sense immediately this is an ancient place. The porch itself is 15th century, but when you step into the south aisle, you have travelled back in time 300 years. Here you would stand in a Norman and later 13th century extension to the original church, a Norman 'Aylesbury Font' standing prominently to the left. When you step into the Nave, the central part of the church, you have journeyed back in time over 1000 years, and find you are standing in the original Anglo-Saxon church, built around the year 975AD - quite literally a 'church within a church'. Were you to examine the chancel arch closely, you would discover 4th century red Roman bricks, evidence of earlier occupation on this site.