|
|
- 1. St Mark and St Luke, Avington, Berkshire, England
-
-
Parish church Despite later additions, the 12thc. church survives in its entirety, consisting of an aisleless nave with a chancel of the same width but slightly lower. The main areas of interest are the richly-carved S doorway, the chancel arch, the remains of the chancel rib vault, and the font.
- 2. St Lawrence, Besselsleigh, Berkshire, England
-
-
Parish church Aisleless nave and chancel in one, with bellcote at W end and plain, continuous 12thc. S nave doorway (not described or photographed). The only 12thc. sculpture is the pillar piscina.
- 3. St Mary, Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England
-
-
Parish church An aisleless cruciform church with rendered nave, crenellated flint crossing tower, south transept and square chancel. Construction appears to be of flint throughout. A plan on show inside the church (1991) indicates that the chancel was originally shorter and apsidal, and that there were two transepts with apsidal chapels. No authority for this plan is given. In 1991 the interior of the nave was inacessible owing to restoration work. By 1998 this had been completed and proved to consist in the main of laying a new floor and altering the liturgical arrangements by installing an altar at the W end of the nave with rows of chairs facing it. According to the churchwarden, the work was overseen by Martin Biddle. The old pulpit remains in its original position, at the E end of the nave and is thus not usable in the new arrangement. The original altar remains in place too, so is presumably used for some services. Romanesque features described below are the S nave doorway, corbels on the S transept, a window in the chancel N wall, and the crossing arches with their capitals.
- 4. St Andrew, Clewer, Berkshire, England
-
-
Parish church In 1868 Clewer was described as a parish a mile from Windsor, but today it has been almost entirely subsumed by its neighbour. Clewer is at the northern extremity of Windsor, alongside the Thames, whose floodplain has effectively put a stop to expansion in that direction. St Andrew’s is a flint church with a short W tower carrying a shingled broach spire. Otherwise it has a chancel with a S chapel, a nave with N and S aisles, the N continuing eastwards as a chapel, now used as an organ loft, and vestry, and a modern S porch. The present S aisle was the original, early 12thc. nave of the church, and its plain chancel arch now leads to the Brocas chapel; the old chancel rebuilt as a chantry by Sir Bernard Brocas in the 14thc. The present nave was added in the later 12thc., and the three-bay S arcade dates from that time. The present N arcade appears to be of the early 13thc., but there is a record of “a new N aisle with wall repairs” added by Henry Woodyer in 1861. Woodyer may thus have widened an existing aisle. The chancel was also restored by Henry Woodyer in 1868. The plain 12thc. chancel arch is round-headed, of one order with plain hollow-chamfered imposts. Romanesque sculpture is found on the S nave arcade and the font.
- 5. St James, Finchampstead, Berkshire, England
-
-
Parish church St James's has a rectangular 12thc. nave (two N windows visible inside) and apsidal chancel, with a square red brick tower of 1720. On the N side is a chapel running the length of the chancel and most of the nave with arches from both. This addition is dated 1590 TH (above the outer door). Nave, chancel and N chapel are all rendered. Romanesque sculpture is confined to a font and a pillar piscina.
- 6. St Michael, Lambourn, Berkshire, England
-
-
Parish church Lambourn is a large village (with a population of around 3,000) in west Berkshire, two miles from the Wiltshire border. The river Lambourn rises here, and runs SE through the village. Lambourn is in the heart of the chalk downs of Berkshire and is famous for its association with horse racing. There are more than 50 racing yards in the Lambourn valley, with more than 2,000 horses in training. The church, surrounded by its spacious churchyard, stands in the centre of the village. It is a cruciform building with an aisled and clerestoried nave, crossing tower, transepts and a chancel with one N and two S chapels. Of this the nave, aisles and crossing arches are all late-12thc, the N transept (now housing the organ) is 13thc and the S transept 14thc. The inner chapels are both 14thc in origin, and the outer S chapel, with its battlements and elaborate pinnacles, is 15thc. The chancel, with its spectacular E window, is largely Perpendicular in style. The tower is largely 15thc, while the W front was originally a fine 12thc composition divided into four storeys by stringcourses, with large round-headed windows above the central doorway, an oculus in the gable, and plain round headed windows in the W aisle walls, but a three-light reticulated window introduced in the 14thc has rather disrupted the design. The church was repaired and reseated by T. L. Donaldson in 1849-50, and repairs were carried out by L.E. King of London in 1949-51. Features recorded here are the W doorway and oculus, the nave arcades, the crossing arches and a pillar piscina used as a stoup in the N aisle.
- 7. Reading Abbey, Reading, Berkshire, England
-
-
Benedictine Abbey The abbey was begun in 1121 under the patronage of Henry I, the choir of the church must have been complete by January 1136, when Henry was buried there. It was dedicated by Archbishop Becket in the presence of Henry II in 1164, by which time it must have been substantially complete. A Lady Chapel was added at the E end in 1314 by Abbot Nicholas of Whaplode (1305–28). More details of the history of the abbey will be found in section VII below.
- 8. St James, Radley, Berkshire,
-
-
Parish church The village of Radley stands in a loop of the Thames that forms the boundary between the traditional counties of Berkshire (to the W) and Oxford (to the E). The village is now on the NE outskirts of Abingdon, and at the northern edge of the village stands the church and Radley College. St James’s church consists of a nave with a W gallery, a S aisle and S transept (housing the organ), a chancel and a W tower. The S aisle is separated from the nave by five bays of tall wooden piers that carry longitudinal arched braces instead of arches. It was restored and reseated by J. O. Scott in 1900-03. The font is 12thc., as is a corbel discovered during the 1900-03 restoration on the NE of the chancel arch.
- 9. St James RC church, Reading, Berkshire, England
-
-
RC church St James’s stands on the site of the N transept of the Abbey church; now on Forbury Road immediately E of the Forbury Gardens. The original church of 1840, built of flint from designs by Pugin, consisted of an aisleless nave with a S sacristy off the E end, and a semicircular E apse. There was no tower, but a simple bell-turret on the W gable. A major enlargement by Wilfred Mangan of 1925-26 added a S aisle, a narthex (Pugin's doorway being moved west), and an ambulatory around the apse. The sacristy was extended eastwards at this time. Finally a N nave aisle was added by H. Bingham Towner, work completed in 1962. The complex also includes a Priest House, S of the church, and S of this a school (now Forbury Gardens Day Nursery), parallel and similar in form to the church, even to the bell-turret. Access is through an arch at the end of Abbot's Walk into a path running along the W side of the complex. Walls on either side of this path include reset abbey stones. The complex was built on the site of the N transept of the Abbey church, and two masses of rubble marking angles of the transept may be seen at the front of the Priest House. The S boundary wall of the school is built on the line of the N choir arcade, and includes two pier bases. A respond base, belonging to a N transept chapel, may be seen in the Priest House garden. All these remnants of abbey fabric still in situ are dealt with more fully in the entry on the abbey itself. The present entry describes two capitals inside St James's, one remodelled as a font, and fragments of carved stone from the abbey built into the external walls of the church, the Priest House and the walls of the path running along the W side of the group.
- 10. St Faith, Shellingford, Berkshire, England
-
-
Parish church A complete late 12thc. church of aisleless nave, chancel and W tower, the last with round-headed lower windows but lancets in its upper storeys. There was an internal restoration in 1850, when the chancel floor was raised to the level of the nave floor. More recently, a vestry has been built on the N side of the nave, enclosing the N nave doorway which now gives access to the vestry from inside the church, and which is therefore no longer visible from the exterior. Nevertheless it has here been treated as an external doorway (III 1.(iii)).
- 11. Manor House, Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire, England
-
-
Manor house Sutton Courtenay is a picturesque village in the NE of Berkshire, alongside the river Thames and some 2 miles S of Abingdon. The village is a long one, extending over a series of minor roads that run S from the river towards Didcot. The oldest parts of the village, including the parish church, the manor house and Norman Hall, and the 13thc. rectory house, now known as the Abbey, are grouped at the N end, near the river. Norman Hall is a rectangular building of late 12thc. date, built of rubble with ashlar quoins. It is aligned from E to W, and it has thus been suggested (VCH) that it may once have been a chapel, but there is no direct evidence for this. It now has 20thc. additions to the N, and is a private residence. The only visible 12thc. work is on the S doorway, towards the W end of the S wall; the simple round-headed N doorway, described as “continuously moulded” by Pevsner, is now inside, linking the 12thc. hall to the modern addition. This is unfortunately no longer available for examination. According to VCH there were originally four pointed lancets in the S wall. Two survive towards the E end, the westernmost of which has been recently given new jambs, and there is another in the W wall. The three-light E window is 15thc. work.
|