Stewkley - Buck's
Posted by: 
Norfolk12
N 51° 55.620 W 000° 45.744
30U E 653852 N 5755284
Stewkley is a large straggling village situated eight miles north-east of Aylesbury. The church of St. Michael is by far the best and most complete example of Norman architecture in Buckinghamshire.
Waymark Code: WMB3GV
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/31/2011
Views: 1
Stewkley is one of the best-preserved of all the Norman churches in England.
It is believed to date from 1150 and its building to have been ordered by one Geoffrey de Clinton. Beyond that, there does not seem to be much information about the historical background of this church.
Although this is known to have been an Anglo-Saxon settlement there are none of the usual claims for a previous church from that period nor any monastic connections.
Geoffrey’s father was a big cheese in the court of Henry I. The family, inevitably, hailed from Normandy but it was not one of the great Norman families. Geoffrey rose from relative obscurity to become first Henry’s treasurer, then Sheriff of Warwickshire. This latter position seems to have been partly due to Henry’s growing mistrust of one of his other advisors, Roger de Beaumont the Earl of Warwick. Geoffrey proceeded to initiate the building of the mighty Kenilworth Castle just two miles from Warwick itself! Warwick reasserted himself with Henry and it was possibly his hand that led to Geoffrey himself being tried - but acquitted - of treason in 1130 after which Geoffrey’s influence declined before his death between 1130 and 1133.
His son, also Geoffrey, inherited and also got involved with quarrels with the Earl of Warwick - this time in King Stephen’s reign - and almost ruined the family. They settled their differences, however, and Geoffrey married Warwick’s daughter, Agnes. It isn’t clear whether it was the elder or younger Geoffrey who commissioned Stewkley Church but we know that the younger Geoffrey passed custodianship of the church to Kenilworth Priory,
The church today is almost unchanged from that period. It was much restored in 1862 by G.E.Street but this was restoration, not modernisation or architectural vandalism. Only the South Porch intrudes on the original plan.
details from village site
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