CONCLUSION
The Church of St Lawrence the Martyr is a beautiful building that is much loved by all who use it particularly the regular congregation. The long history, the clergy and the bright and new open layout all help to create a warm friendly atmosphere when entering the building. The fire in 1969 was nearly a complete disaster, however this did create an ideal opportunity to remove many of the enclosed and dark internal features that had been introduced during the previous 150 years. But the price was the near complete destruction of the early 15th century roof.
At the present time St Lawrence Church is faced with a major new challenge regarding the erosion of the Totternhoe Stone (see previous picture). The original traditional methods kept the walls in a good condition for over 750 years upto the early 20th Century. The photographs from 1897 show the walls in perfect condition, however, the last recorded time the walls were Limewashed was in 1911 and the cementitious repairs started in 1939 or earlier. The current problem is caused by these cementitious repairs and the failure to protect the face of stone with Limewash. In addition, since late Victorian times it has become fashionable to scrape off the render which previously covered the other rubble and stone walls and even today more walls have recently been exposed.
The joints in the chequerwork walls to the Corpus Christi Chapel were repointed with a very hard cement mortar; this has prevented the walls from breathing through the mortar joints. Any dampness within the walls is unable to evaporate out through the lime mortar joints and therefore has to migrate through the permeable Totternhoe Stone to the surface. The moisture, and salts in solution, within the stone are then exposed to frost damage which is causing the rapid exfoliation to the face of the exposed Totternhoe Stone.
The Church walls were never intended to be left unprotected as they are today. All exposed Totternhoe Stone to window tracery, chequerwork and other areas were protected with Limewash. The other original flint and rubble walls were protected with lime render and limewash. Sadly the weathering of the exposed Totternhoe Stone which we now see is the direct result of the failure to protect these materials with limewash and lime render and lime wash. This is the price of the fashion, from Victorian times onwards, of seeing and exposing stone within the external walls.
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings describes ancient buildings as expensive to look after and needing continual regular maintenance if the structure and fabric is to be preserved for future generations. The principle concern is the nature of the buildings "restoration" or "repair", because misguided work can be extremely destructive. The skill lies in mending the buildings with the minimum loss of fabric and so of romance and authenticity. Old buildings cannot be preserved by making them new.