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The Celtic Cross
The Celtic Cross stands near the Burial Mound in the old graveyard adjacent to Taplow Court. In 1996 the whole of the disused graveyard became a National Monument under the control of English Heritage to ensure the protection of the Mound - a Saxon burial barrow - the Celtic Cross memorial, the buried remains of the early Anglo-Saxon and later medieval church, and the pagan and Christian cemeteries in the immediate surroundings. The graveyard was in continuous use from 650 AD to the middle of the 19th century. The original St Nicolas’ Church was built just north-east of the Mound. It fell into disrepair in the early 19th century and it was partially demolished in 1828. What remained was levelled during the major refurbishment of Taplow Court after it was bought by Pascoe Grenfell in 1852. A few years later a new St Nicolas' Church was built in traditional style in its present location. In 1995 the Society, then the Hitcham and Taplow Preservation Society, noting that the Cross was in urgent need of repair, decided on a full restoration project. Permissions were obtained from the Church of England Oxford Diocese, the owner and English Heritage, the guardian of its content. The Diocese had designated the graveyard to be a ‘wilderness area’ and the Society looked after it for some years before maintenance was taken over by the lay Buddhist Society SGI-UK when it purchased Taplow Court in 1988. The Cliveden Restoration Workshop was appointed to carry out the restoration project. An archaeologist supervised the critical aspects of the task. Eva Lipman, then Chair of the Society, began persuading national and local organisations to contribute towards the £5000 cost estimate. The Lottery turned down an application but National Heritage agreed to underwrite 40% of the costs. The South Bucks District Council gave £2000 from its Community Grant Fund and the Taplow and Hitcham Recreation Ground Association offered to meet half of the amount remaining after contributions from official bodies. A significant contribution came from the raffle at the 1997 Village Green Party. Discovering the original wording round the base of the Cross, which had become indecipherable through the years, proved to be a difficult search. The Church Archives, the County Museum and Library Service, the Oxford Diocesan Registry, the County Archivist and various local historians and newspaper back numbers all failed to produce an answer to our queries. A search through the archives of the County Records Office by Eva Lipman and Fred Russell found the diary kept by Caroline Georgiana Grenfell for 1868 and the entry for 22 September reads 'The cross in the churchyard put up ... The inscription is "in memory of all who rest in this church yard" ... It is a copy of the Boyne Hill Cross'. March 1998 saw the restoration of the Celtic Cross to become its original impressive memorial to the souls departed through the centuries. Karl LawrenceAfter publication we discovered that Henry Taunt had photographed All Saints Church at Boyne Hill (Maidenhead) in 1885. A cross very similar to the Taplow one is clearly visible in two of the pictures on the English Heritage Viewfinder site. The land on which All Saints sits was given by Mr Grenfell – later Lord Desborough – who lived at Taplow Court. The cross at All Saints fell down in the 1950s or early 1960s and was replaced by a tree. Thanks to Ken Smith and Rev Jeremy Harris of All Saints for this information. Andrew Findlay