Description

LITTLE FARINGDON MAIN STREET SP20SW (North-east side) 1/127 Little Faringdon Church (dedication unknown) 12.9.55 (Formerly listed as Church of Little Faringdon) GV II*

Chapel-of-ease, now parish church. C12, extended c.1200 and C14 with later additions and alterations. Uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; stone slate roofs with stepped coped verges and C19 stone crosses to gables. Nave with west bellcote; chancel; north aisle; south porch and north vestry. Nave: mainly C12 fabric with original eaves line visible on north, south and west sides, heightened c.1500. South side: square-headed clerestory windows (c.1500) with 2 round-headed lights and label to either side of C14 gabled porch. This has double-chamfered pointed outer arch with hoodmould; small rectangular window to west side. Cambered inner doorway c.1500 but crude rere-arch suggests that this is a remodelling. Holy Water stoup to right. Infilled probably C14 semi-circular arch to right of porch with 3-light C18 window inserted, formerly led to chapel. West side: narrow round-headed C12 window below original eaves cornice and 2-light square-headed window with good Perpendicular tracery (c.1500) above. Early C20 stone bellcote with twin rectangular openings houses earlier bells. Lean-to north aisle c,1200 plain paired lancets to either side of infilled segmental-arched doorway with truncated consecration cross above. Chancel: C12 with plain corbel table and string course. East end, buttressed to centre and with clasping buttresses to angles, has 2 early C13 lancets linked by continuous hoodmould. North and south sides each have C12 round-headed windows to either side of central buttress, arrangement on north concealed by C19 vestry, embattled with 2 lancets on north and cambered doorway to east side. Interior. Transitional 3-bay north arcade has deeply moulded round-headed arches with carved heads to spandrels and apexes. Circular piers with square bases and corner spurs have mixture of stiff-leaf and stiff-leaf and late late Romanesque flat-leaf carving to capitals. Similar carving to capitals of semi-circular corbelled responds. Contemporary double-chamfered pointed chancel arch has semi-circular responds with earlier-looking trumpet-scalloped capitals, that to north combined with trefoils. Traces of former screen across arch visible and C14 trefoil-headed piscina immediatelv to left. Double-chamfered arch to former south chapel has grotesque heads to corbelled responds, east with traces of paint above. Stepped splays to C12 west window and aisle windows and carved angels as label-stops to west clerestory window. Infilled north doorway has semi-circular head internally. Probably C19 arch-braced roof in 3 bays has carved bosses to principal rafters and plastered-over common rafters; stone corbels with simple armorial shields. C19 cambered doorway to vestry. Chancel with continuous string course and deeply-splayed window reveals has C14 aumbry below north-east window with cusped head and ball-flower ornament to pinnacles. Rectangular recess to left of altar and plain piscina in south wall. Plain trussed rafter roof is probably C19. C12 rub-shaped font on later base. Stained glass: late C19 and early C20 except for collection of medieval fragments, including a mid-C13 rounded possibly from Salisbury Cathedral, in first window from east in nave; also some early C17 Netherlandish pieces in same window. Monuments. Wall memorial to Mary Vizard (d.1833) with 2 mourning children and an urn, by E. Gaffin of Regent Street: chancel, south side. Until 1864 Little Faringdon was a dependent chapelry of the Church of St. Matthew, Langford (q.v.) when a new parish was formed. The early C13 remodelling of the chapel may possibly be associated with the maintenance of a grange here by the Citercian Abbey of Beaulieu. Driginally it had been intended to found the abbey at Little Faringdon but in 1204-5 the community noved to Beaulieu. The manor, however, remained in nonastic hands and the chapel may have formed part of its grange here. (Buildings of England; Oxfordshire: pp684-5; VCH: II: Berkshire (1907), pp81-82; colin Platt: The Monastic Grange in Medieval England (1969), p84) [2436]

Listing NGR: SP2262701407

External Links

• Wikidata Q17532833

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Recommended Books

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)