Jesus said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.”

St. Michael's Church

The Church was entirely re-built in flint in the 15^th century and almost entirely gone over in the 19^th century (1861-87). The interior of the church consists of a Nave and lower chancel, south aisle with pier of four shafts and four hollows carrying four-centred arches with late perpendicular four light windows without tracery. The Chancel Arch and the roof are Victorian. The Norman font, from the former church, is cup-shaped, the lower half fluted, above a band of wavy trails framing regular almond shaped medallions and in these symmetrical leaf motifs.

On the west wall of the inner porch is an inscription to Sir Nicholas Smythe, late parson of Latimer (d. 1517) and figures of John Waliston (d. 1469) and Isobel and Joan, his wives. On the west wall can be seen brasses to Agnes (d. 1494), widow of Sir John Cheyne, Kt, and her second husband Edmund Molyneux (d.1484).Also to Anne (d. 1510), widow of Sir David Philip, the figure holding her heart from which scrolls issue. On the west wall of the Nave are brasses to Agnes Johnson (d.1511) and Elizabeth Broughton (d. 1524) and to the left of these is the figure of Richard Newland, rector (d.1494), in clerical robes. The inscription to this figure is inverted.

Details of the current windows may be found at the following website:

http://www.bucksstainedglass.org.uk/Indices/p10046.htm

Brief History of Chenies

The village was known as Isenhampstead until the middle of the 13^th century, when it became known as Isenhampstead Chenies from the Cheyne family who occupied the Manor until the 16^th century. In the 19^th century the old name was dropped.
The village and surrounding land came into the possession of John Russell(1486-1555), the 1^st Earl of Bedford, on his marriage to the daughter of Sir Guy Sapcote in 1526 and for decades was the main family seat of the Russells and remained in their possession until 1954 when it was sold to raise part of the £421 million death duty occasioned by the death of the 12^th Duke.
John Russell was created Baron Russell of Chenies in 1539 and received large areas in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, the Eastern Counties, Covent Garden and 7acres of London. He was the founder of the wealth and greatness of the house of Russell.
The village is a typical example of a Feudal or ‘close’ village belonging to one landlord who could control the number and occupation of the cottages in it. Largely re-built in the 1840s and 1850s, a period of great agricultural prosperity, Chenies was described soon after its improvement as a ”beautiful specimen of an English village. The noble old Manor House, the Church, the school and the elegant commodious and well arranged cottages, are all pleasing and useful mementoes to that illustrious family whose honoured dead now sleep peacefully in that quiet church” - and so it remains today.
Such estate cottages are perhaps the most enduring memorial of the Victorian social order. Designed for the poor man (a labourer’s wage was about £25 a year) by his betters, they represented an outsider’s idea of what an ideal cottage should be. Usually containing 2 bedrooms each they cost £300 a pair to build. The most benevolent housing is to be found only on the larger estates, even so, few landlords were as lavish as the Duke of Bedford, who, throughout the1850s ploughed back 20% of his gross rental in improvements

Manor House

The first known Manor House at Chenies was of 14^th century date and of it onlya stone built crypt remains now, unfortunately falling into ruin. The existing house has a steeply pitched roof and splendid chimney stacks, some of which bear ornamentation. It represents two periods of building, the north block containing the old hall and tower is ascribed to the mid-15^th century, the south wing (known as the ‘new building’) and detached nursery block (now in ruins) were added by the first Earl of Bedford in 1530-1533. The antiquarian, Leland, visiting the house soon after this enlargement which included a service wing and porter’s lodge north of the entrance, demolished in 1750) observed that “the old house of the Cheynes is so translated that little or nothing of it remayneth untranslated”. He says the construction was brick, unusual for all but the largest houses at that time. The cut brick chimneys date from that reconstruction. Henry VIII twice stayed at Chenies Manor, once in 1534 and again in 1541 when a Privy Council was held at Chenies.
Indiscretions allegedly committed there were included in the indictment of Katherine Howard. Queen Elizabeth I also stayed there several times, for four weeks in 1570, in 1575, and again in 1592 when the Privy Council again met at Chenies. The house was, by a very credible tradition, garrisoned by the Parliamentary army, and a skirmish took place there in 1642. Before that, the Russells had made Woburn their chief seat, and by the middle of the 18thcentury, Chenies had become the residence of a tenant farmer, Mr Davis. This gentleman, without the Russell’s consent, converted part of the south wing into five tenements for his labourers and this was not discovered until about 25years later when he was made to reinstate the building at his own expense. The fenestration of the house was extensively restored (copying the originals) in about 1815, when the present front porch and door were added, and the west and south elevations of the north wing cased in Georgian brick.

The house has been called by various names (Chenies House, Chenies Place, even Chenies Palace!) but the Manor House is the oldest name recorded, having been in use in Tudor times

The Bedford Chapel

The Bedford Chapel, built in 1556 and since rebuilt is described by Pevsner as the richest single storehouse of funeral monuments in any parish church in England. The Chapel is not normally open to the public except by the special consent of the Trustees of the Bedford Settled Estates. Much of the interior, however, can be seen through the windows which divide the Chapel from the Church. The stained glass is by Kempe and dates from 1895/1898. The images of St Peter and St Andrew are said to be French, that of St Andrew is late 14thcentury.

At the east end, the tomb of John Russell (1486-1555), the 1^st Earl, together with his wife. He served Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary. At the north side is the altar tomb of Anne, his eldest daughter, wife of the Earl of Warwick, (d. 1604) in the robes of a peeress. Also Bridget, second wife of Francis Russell, 2^nd Earl of Bedford (d. 1600) and Elizabeth, wife of William, Lord Russell of Thornhaugh, father of the 4^th Earl (d. 1611). A beautiful effigy, similar to that of Mary, Queen of Scots, in Westminster Abbey.

Also the simple but noble monument of black marble slabs and white columns to Lady Frances Bourchier (d. 1612), grand daughter to the 2^nd Earl. Filling the west end is “the most swagger of All monuments in Buckinghamshire” (Pevsner); it is to the 5^th Earl, 1^st Duke (1613-1700) and is probably by Francis Bird. Nearby on the south wall is the monument to the 2^nd Duke and Duchess (1680-1711), designed by William Chambers and executed by Joseph Wilton. It is in English tradition but much influenced by Rome where Wilton spent eight years.

At the south side is the altar tomb of the 4^th Earl and his wife (1593-1641) and a Chrisom child (the child dying within a month of baptism and being buried in a chrisom or baptismal cloth). The 4^th Earl was the head of those who undertook the draining of the great level of the Fens - the Bedford Level.

Also the altar tomb of Francis Russell, 2^nd Earl of Bedford (1527-1585) and the tomb of Frances, Lady Chandos (d. 1623), wife of Edward the 3^rd Earl. Among the later 19^th century tombs are Georgiana, daughter of the 4^th Duke of Cordon (d.1858), Earl Russell, the Prime Minister (d. 1878), Odo, Baron Ampthill (d.1884) and Lord Arthur Russell (d. 1892).There are also effigies to Sir John Cheyne and his wife (late 14^th century). His for some reason is not completed beingleft entirely in the rough block form.