Englefield was to me the name of a ward at Fair Mile Hospital when I was a youngster as I remember my parents talking about it. I never realised it was a village let alone where it was. When I grew up I found out the wards in the hospital were names after Berkshire Villages. I found out where it was after driving past on many occasions on my way to the M4. Last year I read a blog on the church by a lady who writes A Rich Tapestry and I marked the church down for a visit. St Marks is the First church I visited this year and starts of the Church Explores for 2020. Now Wikipedia has no history on the church but you can read the History of St Marks on the church website so rather than me plagiarise their work I would suggest you visit the link.
St make came to the limelight in 2017 when the sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, Pippa Middleton, married financier James Matthews at St Mark's and the Duke & Duchess attended the wedding along with their children
The church is up a private drive to the house, you could park nearby
The church sits in it's own walled off area
Walking around the church past the West end of the South aisle
Looking up at the spire
The spire is off on the north side of the nave
Looking along the North side towards the Lady Chapel which sticks out in the side
Looking back from the East end
The East end with Lady chapel on one side
The East end of the church
Back on the South side showing the aisle and the porch
When you enter the church you come into the South aisle
When you go into the main aisle you look down to the Chancel arch and chancel
The altar from behind the rails
The altar with it's beautiful embroidered covering
Behind the altar is this wonderful painted screen
On either side are paintings of I presume Matthew, Mark Luke & John
The main one showing the Good Shepherd. I suspect the altar came right up to the screen once but like most other churches it was borough forward leaving what you see under the paintings
Over to the left is a tomb with covering. It is flat with no effigy
On one end there would have been a brass here showing who was buried in the tomb.
A wood screen partition's off the Lady chapel
Nearby are the choir stalls
which are on either side
Floral display beside the altar
The pulpit is on one side of the chancel arch while the other an eagle lectern
Beside the pulpit is this rather stunning memorial
Looking out from the pulpit along the nave
Panoramic shot showing the South aisle and nave
Inside what turns out to be the Lady Chapel though I must admit I thought it was private chapel
The floor is covered in tomb slabs telling you who was buried there.
The wall on the West end has family memorials on it
The one memorial that does stand out is this one
It is to John Englefield he is kneeling opposite his wife Margaret. it shows his son behind and daughter behind his wife
Above them they lie in repose
You can read the inscription underneath
Over to one side in the East end is what looks like a Holy Water stoup
Over to the South aisle where memorials can be seen on the South wall
There are also a couple of tomb recesses the first one
holds what is thought to be the lady of the Englefield family
The second a knight
he is in armour and may have had a shield at one time. he is through to be the chief representative of the Englefield family and is though to day to the 13th or 14th century
Left a memorial in the nave and left one in the South aisle
at the back of the South aisle is the organ and while I was taking photo sin the church a couple of guys walked in. I though they were to tune the organ but one sat down and started to play. The other fellow who was older than me was teaching him. Well It made me stop for a while to listen to the organ. I was reluctant to leave but I had other churches to visit. I felt very privileged to have heard the organ play, sorry I did not have presence of mind to record some of it
at the front of the South aisle you can see these triple window and the altar. In front of which are more tomb slabs, some dating to the early 1600's
At the back is this font which dates back to the 13th century, it was found buried in the churchyard 50 years ago. The font on the left is most likely Victorian and is at the back beside the altar. No doubt the Victorians buried the older font
Above the West nave window
On the North wall you can see a couple of bequests from various people
and this nice looking memorial
The North aisle has a couple of windows with more modern stained glass
The North aisle has a couple of windows with more modern stained glass
Looking back at the West window in the North aisle
The detail of the centre glass in the North aisle windows
The Chancel window
Outside is quite a large churchyard
With some art near one of the tombs
Not far from the porch is this Memorial cross and to the left is a Tomb chest
There are a lot of older headstones and tombs you can see
and the odd cast iron marker cross
On the North side of the church you can see more headstones
looking South across the East end of the church
four differing types of marker crosses on graves
There are a number of more modern headstone near the boundary wall on the East side of the churchyard
Family graves near the East wall of the Lady chapel
These two from the Benyon family
Looking over towards the Lych gate
Three more tombs near a path that will take you to a gate
Three headstones near the West end
A look along the North side of the churchyard
I will leave you with this view from the North West corner of the churchyard showing St Marks Church.
Till next time may I wish you a a pleasant weekend
