Repairs and Additions

 
Battlesden church and adjoining house seen from the A5 January 2008

An inventory of 1553 noted "items in the steepull of the seid churche iij belles; item the church and chancell| leaded and the porches and the steepull tyled" whilst in 1663 [HSA1663] it was described as "parish church of Battlesden ruinous - Charles Newport of Battlesden should repair". It seems likely that Charles Newport did not repair as in 1775 the suggestion was made that the building was so ruinous it should be pulled down. The church was said to be in very poor repair by the middle of the 19th century, though contemporary drawings by Thomas Fisher and George Shepherd show a much happier state of affairs and are, perhaps, idealised. These drawings show no sign of the steeple noted in 1553.

East Window in January 2007 

At the beginning of the 19th century the main entrance was in the south wall of the nave|, this door is now blocked and partly obscured by a buttress. Similarly two windows high in the south wall of the nave are now blocked. The roof of the chancel was renewed in 1868 when the nave was also restored and reseated. The chancel was restored in 1897-1898 by the Duke of Bedford with the architect being J.S.Lawrence of Leighton Buzzard, an embattled parapet was added to the name and the south door was blocked at this date when three large buttresses were added to that side of the nave.

detail of Mary and John from the east window January 2008

The church was closed in 1928 but reopened and rehallowed for worship in 1949 following restoration work paid for by William Walter Merridale. Further restoration was carried out in the 1960s and 1970s.

Most of the notes on the structural history of the church can be found in Bedfordshire Historical Record Society Volume number 73 of 1994 Bedfordshire Churches in the Nineteenth Century: Part I: parishes A to G, put together by former County Archivist Chris Pickford from numerous sources some held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service and some held elsewhere or published.