St Mark's Englefield

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 

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