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Burton Lane, PRINCES RISBOROUGH, HP27 9JF

A short village street but very pretty, thanks as much to the old front garden walls and plants behind as to the Chiltern vernacular cottages.

These cottages are C17.

Burton Lane contains the oldest residential buildings in Monks Risborough. The house on the left is timber framed with brick infill under a tiled roof and dates from around 1600. It is Grade II listed.

Burton Lane contains the oldest residential buildings in Monks Risborough. On the right are three cottages under a continuous thatched roof. The middle one dates from the 17th century, is timber framed, and has a section of the wattle and daub construction exposed behind a glass panel, visible over the door. The two outer cottages are later, and are built of brick and flint but all three are Grade II listed.

The south section of the lane connects the churchyard with Aylesbury Road.

St Dunstan Church overlooking St Dunstan's Park on Mill Lane

This rather alarming sculpture is to be found on the southern wall of the nave of St Dunstan's, Monks Risborough towards its eastern end. It portrays St Dunstan and the Devil. As well as being a statesman, St Dunstan was a skilled metalworker. His former trade came in handy when he happened to encounter Satan one day. Giving chase and cornering the Evil One, the saint grasped the Devil's nose with his blacksmith's tongs - which fortunately he had with him. What happened next I have not as yet been able to discover, but presumably the lord of the Underworld received a severe tweaking. Regardless of the veracity of that story, St Dunstan was by all accounts quite a character; he was born near Glastonbury in c.909AD and was related to the Wessex royal family. He was instrumental in restoring monastic life in England, which had lapsed during the Viking / Danish invasions. He was advisor to a succession of Wessex, and thence early English kings, and in 959 became Archbishop of Canterbury, a post he held until his death in 988 in that city. He was apparently a skilled metalworker, draghtsman, scribe and musician - and latterly a popular and erudite teacher of boys at the Cathedral school in Canterbury. Amongst other things, he is patron saint of blacksmiths, silversmiths and goldsmiths. The sculpture seen here was created in 1971 and is made of lead and fibreglass.

A close-up of some of the reassembled mediæval stained glass in the righthand lancet of the window seen in Image] See also Image]

A close-up of some of the reassembled mediæval stained glass in the lefthand lancet of the window seen in Image] See also Image]