In 1820, Jeffry Wyattville (1766–1840), architect of Ashridge House, is appointed to carry out a major restoration of the building. His “improvements” are drastic, and contemporary accounts describe churchwardens “tearing down from the walls the memorials of the past”. 19th-century restorers did not have the same reverence for historic fixtures as we do today. Wyattville also covers the outer walls of the church with stucco (plaster), moves the medieval chest tomb from the nave into the north transept, and removes a musicians’ gallery from the east end.
