Mapledurham : St Margaret

This beautiful church located in the heart of the Mapledurham country estate beside the River Thames is part of the pretty red-brick village with Jacobean almshouses and an ancient water mill. The interior includes good monuments and stained glass.

About this church

The most significant details to this medieval church have resulted from the restoration in 1863 by William Butterfield. He refaced the C14 west tower with a bold chequer pattern in flint and brick, raised it in height and added a pyramid roof. The gabled porch, also of 1863, has shaped bargeboards and wooden tracery.

The medieval church is mainly C14 and C15, although the blocked arch at the west end of the south wall may be C13. In the north aisle are two Perpendicular windows, and a Victorian one.

The roof is probably C15 and has flamboyant Victorian decoration. Perpendicular east window to the chancel. The side windows are C16. The C14 south chapel was intended for the tomb of Sir Robert Bardolf c.1395. His 70-inch brass effigy resembles that of Sir Robert de Grey at Rotherfield Greys. The south chapel opens to the nave through two finely moulded arches and has square-headed windows.

The chapel remains the private property of the manor.

The Norman font has billet decoration. Stained glass in the east window of the chancel. In the tracery lights are late C14 and C15 heraldic shields; with C16 and C17 fragments in the Bardolf chapel.

The monuments and effigies of the Blount family are C17 and C18.

In the churchyard, there is a monument to the Reverend Lord Augustus Fitz Clarence, vicar 1829-54, the fifth of William IV’s children.

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