Don't miss our Family Service

at 11 am on 13th May

Welcome to St Nicholas' Church, Ibstone

To know God and to make him known

Nestled on the chalk down overlooking the Hambledon Valley, Ibstone is a place where people have been coming to worship God for

over a thousand years.

We are a small church in a small village but

you can be sure of a warm welcome.

For more information contact the

Church Warden, Cmdr Tim Sloane

on 01491 638397 or email him.

We are proud to be in partnership with

Ibstone C of E First School

You can read their recent "outstanding"

SIAS report here

History of Ibstone – The Church of St Nicholas

There has been a parish church at Ibstone for over a thousand years – at least as long as the great yew tree, 19 feet round, at its north west corner.  It is probable that there was a church here even in Saxon times (c. 800), although the present building is mainly Norman (c. 1200).  The church is quite small, having, with choir and gallery, a seating accommodation of about 110.

Standing in its peaceful and spacious churchyard, it is easy to see why our forefathers chose this spot.  At the southern end of the Chiltern Hills, but still some 600 feet above sea level and set on a south west slope of pure chalk, it looks over the woods and valleys of Turville and Hambledon.

The ancient Manor farm, the Victorian school and the Mace (an old village green) are not far away, but most of the modern village is about half a mile away and fronting the spacious common owned by Merton College, Oxford, probably since its endowment in 1274.  The common is still fortunately open and unenclosed though used by the cricket club and also partly farmed.

There are traces of buildings in the lane leading to the church, but perhaps through the Black Death of 1349 or some long forgotten enclosure, there are now no houses near the church.  It is holy in its quietness but still very much part of this active village community – a place set apart but still deeply treasured and used.

The building itself is beautiful in its plainness and simplicity yet it modestly conceals an intricate memorial to the piety and pride of past generations.  Behind the 19^th cent. porch the doorway is 12^th cent. as is the font, which consists of a large stone bowl, originally lined with lead.  The nave, dating from early in the 12^th cent. was left mainly untouched after the rebuilding of the chancel in the 13^th cent. until restoration was undertaken in 1870.  The chancel roof was then reconstructed and diagonal buttresses where added to the eastern angles.  The oak beams in the chancel are from the 13^th cent. as is the window over the altar, though the glass is Victorian.

The two windows in the south wall were re-cut in the 14^th cent. and have the original glass.  Between the windows is a 14^th cent. blocked doorway, and in the nave the windows are from the 14^th and 16^th cent.  The carved oak pulpit is early 15^th cent. with a modern top, base and steps.  This may well have been one of the first pulpits in the country, as at that time it was customary for sermons to be preached from the chancel steps.  There is a staple in the pulpit to which a bible was chained and a small iron ring which may have held an hour glass support.  The nave roof which dates from 1774, the date on one of the tie beams, was originally covered with lead, but when this was twice stolen in 1970 it was replaced by a mineralised felt.  The gallery at the west end of the nave was erected in 1837 and fronted with 18^th cent. ballusters probably adapted from an old communion rail.