shinfield2

"To know Christ and to make Him known through a caring, sustainable and growing Christian presence in our Community."

St Mary - Shinfield - part II

Points of interest in the church

Murals, Monuments and Brasses

1 Mitford Brass On 2nd March, 1936, a number of floor tiles were removed close to the Font and a brass plaque to George and Mary Mitford, parents of Mary Mitford, author of Our Village, was revealed. Her grave is in the churchyard of All Saints, Swallowfield.

2 Henry Beke, 1580 The worn tablet reads ‘Here lieth

bereed the bode of Master Henry Beke Esquier, who desesed the 23 May 1580’. Beneath the tablet is a small widow’s lozenge with three chevrons, the lozenge showing her own entitlement to bear her father’s arms and the chevrons being part of the shield of those arms.

3 Huick Steward, 1575 This is the earliest existing monument in the church and is made of plaudina limestone. It commemorates Huick Steward who died on 31st July, 1575, possibly while young, as there is no helmet on his crest.

4 Royal Coat of Arms, 1660   Painted on oak and placed to denote the supremacy of the monarch over the Pope.

5 Martyn Monument Originally placed in the Martyn Chapel in 1607. Edward Martyn died in 1604, aged 79, but his effigy is missing, possibly destroyed during the Commonwealth.

6 Charity Board Various bequests from 1611 to 1729 are recorded. This was not done to advertise the benefactors but to ensure that the money was not misused.

7 The Body Family   Four tablets span a period of nearly 200 years (1748-1933), indicative of the persistence of families in the village.

8 Henry Beke ( died 1580, see 2 above) The tableau is of marble and alabaster and was erected in 1627 by Sir George Speke on the order of his mother, Eliza, nee Beke. The Latin inscription says:
  Here the father Henry, the mother Habe and daughter
  Eliza are represented, the father alone is interred.
  Beke is his name, of the house of Hartley Court, the
   Mother was the daughter of Roger Lewkenor, Knight,
   George ( the son of Hugo Speke by Eliza ) raised the
  Monument by pious command of his mother.

9 Rebecca and John Webster, 1785 and 1792   The inscriptions of the two tablets record the fulfilment of their wishes to be buried together.

10 Rev'd. G. Hulme 1888    The Revd. G. Hulme was chaplain to the King of Hanover. After his death his children built a new classroom onto the school at School Green in his memory.

11 Communion Table In 1633 Archbishop Laud ordered the Vicar of Shinfield to move the Communion table from the centre of the Choir to the east end of the church. In 1908 the Jacobean table was found in an outhouse, having been used for filling lamps and was restored and put back into the church.

12 Hatchment Boards, 1845   For Revd. G. Hulme and his wife. The motto means ‘I shall rise up’.

13 St. John’s Head Plaque   It is believed that there were originally four plaques but these were removed during the restoration in 1855. The remaining one was found in an outhouse at Hyde End Farm in 1900. The plaque, of cast iron, shows St. John the Evangelist, who, legend has it, could not die: attempts to burn and imprison him are represented.

14 Rev'd. Matthew Fielde, 1846. The Revd. M. Fielde was Vicar of Shinfield from 1824-1846 and the last to live in the C 18th vicarage, which pre-dated the old vicarage of 1847 (now L’Ortolan restaurant)

15 Wilder Family, 1797-1816 Two tablets record the terrible incidence of infant mortality, even amongst the wealthier members of the community. General Wilder moved to Binfield in 1813 but sold up in 1818 after the death of his son, Francis, by drowning at 14 years of age, in 1816.

16 Brass   Lists Vicars of Shinfield from 1280 to the present day.

17 Mrs Mary Floyer, 1726   The wife of Colonel Peter Floyer, who served under Marlborough and settled at Shinfield, between Ryeish Green and Spencer’s Wood. There is a house in Hyde End Road called Floyer’s Barn.

Further points of note in the church

the millennium window

the beke monument (see 8 above) was restored in 1990

medieval chest; one of two in the south aisle

tower date The tower was added in the C17th following the battle of Reading during the Civil War and the previous spire was destroyed by cannon fire. The replacement tower is of red brick with the date carved on the outside of the West wall. The spiral staircase, which originally gave access to the bells, was blocked off when the bells were rehung and is now used for storage. Access is now by a ladder within the ringing room. It also contains some charity boards referring to the school, which still stands on School Green; a case with C15th pot sherds and a photograph and polished relic of the cedar tree, once part and parcel of the view of the church, and still to be found depicted on the church kneelers and thought to have been planted by Anne Boleyn. It was destroyed in the 1988 gales.

The bells of St Mary's

Affiliated to the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers, the ringers of Shinfield never rang much more than ‘stony’, the most basic of ringing and, though part of the Reading branch in name, were never visited by the great and good of St. Mary’s in the Butts and St. Laurence or helped to improve their standards. By the 1930s there was no longer a band at Shinfield who could ring full-circle and eventually the duties of chiming the bells for service fell to the choir. The bell gear deteriorated and the ringing chamber became unsuitable for full-circle ringing as it added dangerous clutter in the shape of cupboards and pall-bearers. The floor originally was cobbled with a loop set into the cobbles beneath the tenor, so that it could be chimed with the foot. The tenor rope was of immense thickness.

In the early 1970s a Stewardship campaign initiated a programme to restore the bells and create a new band, since the knowledge of change ringing had been lost. The fledgling band was taught by Brian Gatward of Theale, but its activities were cut short when the tower was condemned as unsafe. The four larger bells of the six were hung in the same plane and contributed to undue stresses on the tower.

Much fund-raising was done and the money raised mainly from the village. Lapsed ringers from the congregation came forward and, while the tower was out of action, practices were held at Swallowfield, whose bells had just been restored.

The bells were rehung in a new frame and their orientation changed. They were quarter-turned and lowered a floor with the old frame left in situ above the bells.

the original belfry layout prior to 1976

† our churches (map)

.....................................

† Beech Hill

.....................................

† Farley Hil l

.....................................

† Shinfield

.....................................

† St Mary's interior

.....................................

† Spencers Wood