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St Nicolas' Centenary?
The history of St Nicolas' Church in Taplow goes back well over the 100-year mark, but the centenary of the present church building will happen on 6th July this year. An 1828 church stood on the present site. Before that a medieval church stood in the old Churchyard next to Taplow Court, and next door also to the the pre-Christian burial mound. In 1996 archaeologists discovered that, before the medieval church, a Saxon church stood on the same site - giving strength to the local tradition that in the mid-7th century St Birinus was baptized in the Bapsey Pond (which can still be seen in the grounds of Taplow Court). On 6th July 1911 the foundation stone of the present church of St Nicolas was laid (you can see it outside the church at the end of the chancel). On 6th December 1912 (St Nicolas' Day) the Bishop of Oxford consecrated the building. So we shall be celebrating 100 years of this church building during the period July 2011 and December 2012. We shall be offering a programme of special events, special visitors and preachers - and hope that other individuals, groups and organisations in the community will want to mark the centenary of this significant (and noticeable) village building themselves. To begin, we shall be joined on 3rd July 2011 at our 10.30am service by the Bishop of Buckingham (Alan Wilson) as we start the centenary year and the Bishop of Oxford will be coming in December 2012 to round off the celebrations. We have begun to put together the programme for the 18-month centenary 'year' and we hope to publish it soon after Easter. Alan Dibden