Description

LONG WITTENHAM HIGH STREET SU5494 (North side) 8/75 Church of St. Mary 14/06/63 (Formerly listed as Church of St. Mary Virgin)

GV I

Church. C12; C13 south aisle; c.1300 south transept; C14 north aisle and south porch; C15 tower; chancel rebuilt c.1850 by George Gilbert Scott with some re-used windows. Sandstone rubble with stone dressings; old plain-tile roof to transept and chancel; roofs of nave, aisles and tower not visible. 6-bay aisled nave, south transept, chancel and west tower. Open timber-framed gabled porch with C15 double plank doors to 2-centre archway. Shaped bargeboards with ogee mouldings. Open balustrade to sides. Crown-post roof with arch braces with carved faces to ends. Ribbed and studded double door to 2-centre arched doorway with hood mould with carved faces to end stops. Two 2-light reticulated tracery windows to left. Window of 3 pointed trefoiled lights and sex-foiled circle to end of transept. Paired trefoil lancet to right return of transept with flat head and hood mould. Paired trefoil lancets with 2-centre arched head to end of aisle and to left of chancel. 2-centre arched doorway to left of centre of chancel. 2 lancets to right. Mid C19 window of geometrical tracery to end of chancel. 3 paired lancets to clerestory of nave. Parapet to nave and aisle roofs. Tower to left of 3 stages: Romanesque doorway to base; lancet to second stage, sundial to right; louvred lancet to third stage. Battlemented parapet. Rear: 2-centre arched doorway to right of centre aisle. 3-light Y-tracery window to left. 2-light reticulated tracery windows to right and right end of aisle. 3 paired lancets to clerestory of nave. 2-centred arched lancet to left of chancel. Romanesque lancet to centre, paired lancet to right. Parapet to nave and aisle roofs. Tower to right: louvred lancet to third stage. 2-light rectilinear tracery window to left return. Interior: arch-braced roof with 2 rows of wind braces to chancel. C15 Perpendicular roof to nave and aisles. Trefoil-topped piscina to right of chancel. C17 choir stalls and desks with richly carved poppy heads to ends and wrought iron candelabra. Romanesque chancel arch. Early C17 wood pulpit to left with carved panels. North arcade of 3 two-centred arches. South arcade of 4 two-centred arches with tomb-recess segmental-arch to chancel end. Romanesque lead font on round stone base, embossed with archbishops in arcade with wheels of sun above, and C17 wood cover to north aisle. Early C17 screen separates transept from south aisle: pilasters between open arches with winged heads to spandrels and strapwork decoration. Piscina to transept: trefoil topped with winged angels to top and damaged hood-mould over. Carved figure of knight in armour to base. History: original church built by Walter Giffard, third Earl of Buckingham c.1120. Transept probably built by the widow of Gilbert de Glare, Earl of Gloucester and of Hertford. In c.1850 the chancel was rebuilt at the expense of the Rector and Fellows of Exeter College, Oxford. The choir-stalls and desks were formerly in Exeter College Chapel, presented in 1875. The screen to the transept was given to Exeter College Chapel in 1621 by George Hakewill, Chaplain to Prince Charles, presented to Long Wittenham in 1888. The south porch is reputed to have come from Lincoln Cathedral. ("A Guide to St. Mary's Church, Long Wittenham" 1981. V.C.H.: Berkshire Vol.IV, 1924, p.388-390, Buildings of England, Berkshire, 1975, p.170-171. Unpublished memoranda of Reverend J.C. Clutterbuck (copy held by Long Wittenham History Society)).

Listing NGR: SU5484894045

External Links

• Wikidata Q17529048

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