Church of St Mary Magdalene, Willen
The Church of St Mary Magdalene is an Anglican church of the Diocese of Oxford. Named after Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene, it is located in the village of Willen, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. It was completed in 1680 and was designed by the scientist, inventor, and architect Robert Hooke. It was designated as a Grade I listed building in 1966.[1]
History
The Willen parish registers date back to the year 1065. The current church stands in the place of an older one that resembled the church in Great Woolston, but without a turret, the two bells belonging to it hanging in arches, as at Little Linford.[2]
The current church was commissioned and paid for by
Work on the church was probably carried out during the period 1678–80.[3] The project cost Dr. Busby nearly £5,000, not including the materials taken from the former edifice. George Lipscomb observes that "with good management the church might have been built for a third part of the money."
In the 19th century, the building was modified by removing the cupola from the tower and adding an apse at the end of the church's nave. This was a reversal of Hooke's original architectural intention, which was to combine a simple nave with a decorative tower.[4]
References
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: O. Ratcliff's "History and antiquities of the Newport Pagnell hundreds" (1900)
- ^ "CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, Campbell Park - 1160998 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ Ratcliff, Oliver (1900). History and antiquities of the Newport Pagnell hundreds (Public domain ed.). Cowper press. pp. 468–.
- ^ John Figg (2012). "Our Church". St Mary Magdalene, Willen. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
- ^ "Willen Church". Westminster School. 2007. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2020.