Church of St Mary

Details

SU 87 NE
9/23

WHITE WALTHAM
CHURCH HILL (east side)
Church of St Mary

11.04.72

G.V.
II*

Parish church. C12, C13, C14; heavily restored in 1868. Mostly flint, some chequered stone and flint; part chalk and Bath stone dressings. Tile roofs. West tower; nave with north and south aisles and south porch; north transept, now used as an organ chamber and vestry; south transept; chancel.

Tower: three stages. Weathered plinth, string with bolection moulding; moulded cornice on small shaped brackets to parapet. Circular stair turret, projecting on the north west corner, rising just above tower with conical tile roof and broken finial. The bottom stage has a C19, three-light traceried window on the west face, with pointed, moulded head, enriched with dog-tooth ornament. The ringing stage has a lancet window on three faces, recessed within a cusped inner opening with cusped and pointed outer arched opening. The bell chamber has a clock face and a two-light cusped louvred opening with pointed, moulded arched head enriched with dog-tooth ornament on three faces.

Nave: North aisle: west end, C13, with a two-light lancet window, restored and a quatrefoil over. North wall: three C19, two-light coupled trefoiled windows. Clasping buttress on north-west corner.

South aisle: south wall. Three, C19 two-light coupled trefoiled windows. Between the second and third windows from the east, is a gabled porch with a doorway having outer jambs with attached shafts, crowned by reset C12 scalloped capitals, much decayed; on the left end is a C19 lancet, and on the west wall a small C13 pointed window; to the left of the window a C19 door within a pointed arched opening of two orders with hood-mould enriched with dog-tooth ornament.

North transept: reset C13 window of chalk has two lancet lights with a circular light over. Two C19 lancet windows in the east wall.

South transept: east wall; two windows. The window on the right is C14, with two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil under a pointed head, with moulded labels. The window on the left is C13, with two lancets.

South wall: chequered stone and flint with a C19, three-light cusped window with reticulated traceried head and C14 jambs. Carved in this wall are numerous C17 and C18 graffiti in the form of names and initials; there are two sun-dials similarly carved. A small C19 plank door in pointed arched opening on west return.

Chancel: East wall: Three chalk C13 lancet windows with a circular light over the centre one; chamfered jambs with rebates for shutters; much restored.

Interior: part of the C12 church survives in the Norman arch which stands on the south side of the tower. Chancel has a four-bay barrel ribbed and boarded roof. On the east wall between the lancet windows are tall pointed recesses with continuous roll moulded arrises. Two-bay C19 arcades with pointed arches open into the north and south transepts. In the south-east corner of the chancel is a C13 double piscina, restored, with a central, marble, detached shaft, with a moulded capital and base; corresponding attached shafts to the responds and moulded trefoiled arches. The chancel arch is pointed with two hollow-chamfered orders carried on semi-octagonal responds, with C15 moulded capitals and bases. At the south-east of the south transept is a pointed piscina with sunk, quarter-round jambs and a circular basin now cut off flush with the wall. Opening from the south transept to the south aisle, is a stilted drop arch of two sunk quarter-round orders. The nave has an arched braced collar roof, the nave arcades are each of two bays with pointed arches on central columns of Romanesque design.

Monuments: below the south window in the south transept is the remains of a C14 segmental-headed tomb recess. On the north wall under the tower, a marble monument to Constantine Phipps Miles d.1728. It has a moulded plinth and base, open pediment on brackets, surmounted by an urn. A brass set in a marble slab on the floor at the east end of the nave to Margaret, wife of john Hilk, d.1465. On the west wall of the south transept is a carved marble cartouche with an inscription to the memory of William Neile d.1670 which states that he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a privy councillor to King Charles II.

Listing NGR: SU8547977517

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

41136

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (1975), 265
Ditchfield, P H, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Berkshire, (1924), 175

Websites
British Geological Survey, Strategic Stone Study, accessed 04/02/2020 from https://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/buildingStones/StrategicStoneStudy/EH_atlases.html

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.