Description

LITTLE FARINGDON MAIN STREET
SP20SW (North-east side)
1/127 Little Faringdon Church
(dedication unknown)
12.9.55 (Formerly listed as Church of
Little Faringdon)
GV II*

Chapel-of-ease, now parish church. C12, extended c.1200 and C14 with later
additions and alterations. Uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings;
stone slate roofs with stepped coped verges and C19 stone crosses to gables.
Nave with west bellcote; chancel; north aisle; south porch and north vestry.
Nave: mainly C12 fabric with original eaves line visible on north, south and
west sides, heightened c.1500. South side: square-headed clerestory windows
(c.1500) with 2 round-headed lights and label to either side of C14 gabled
porch. This has double-chamfered pointed outer arch with hoodmould; small
rectangular window to west side. Cambered inner doorway c.1500 but crude
rere-arch suggests that this is a remodelling. Holy Water stoup to right.
Infilled probably C14 semi-circular arch to right of porch with 3-light C18
window inserted, formerly led to chapel. West side: narrow round-headed C12
window below original eaves cornice and 2-light square-headed window with good
Perpendicular tracery (c.1500) above. Early C20 stone bellcote with twin
rectangular openings houses earlier bells. Lean-to north aisle c,1200 plain
paired lancets to either side of infilled segmental-arched doorway with
truncated consecration cross above. Chancel: C12 with plain corbel table and
string course. East end, buttressed to centre and with clasping buttresses to
angles, has 2 early C13 lancets linked by continuous hoodmould. North and south
sides each have C12 round-headed windows to either side of central buttress,
arrangement on north concealed by C19 vestry, embattled with 2 lancets on north
and cambered doorway to east side. Interior. Transitional 3-bay north arcade has
deeply moulded round-headed arches with carved heads to spandrels and apexes.
Circular piers with square bases and corner spurs have mixture of stiff-leaf and
stiff-leaf and late late Romanesque flat-leaf carving to capitals. Similar
carving to capitals of semi-circular corbelled responds. Contemporary
double-chamfered pointed chancel arch has semi-circular responds with
earlier-looking trumpet-scalloped capitals, that to north combined with
trefoils. Traces of former screen across arch visible and C14 trefoil-headed
piscina immediatelv to left. Double-chamfered arch to former south chapel has
grotesque heads to corbelled responds, east with traces of paint above. Stepped
splays to C12 west window and aisle windows and carved angels as label-stops to
west clerestory window. Infilled north doorway has semi-circular head
internally. Probably C19 arch-braced roof in 3 bays has carved bosses to
principal rafters and plastered-over common rafters; stone corbels with simple
armorial shields. C19 cambered doorway to vestry. Chancel with continuous string
course and deeply-splayed window reveals has C14 aumbry below north-east window
with cusped head and ball-flower ornament to pinnacles. Rectangular recess to
left of altar and plain piscina in south wall. Plain trussed rafter roof is
probably C19. C12 rub-shaped font on later base. Stained glass: late C19 and
early C20 except for collection of medieval fragments, including a mid-C13
rounded possibly from Salisbury Cathedral, in first window from east in nave;
also some early C17 Netherlandish pieces in same window. Monuments. Wall
memorial to Mary Vizard (d.1833) with 2 mourning children and an urn, by E.
Gaffin of Regent Street: chancel, south side. Until 1864 Little Faringdon was a
dependent chapelry of the Church of St. Matthew, Langford (q.v.) when a new
parish was formed. The early C13 remodelling of the chapel may possibly be
associated with the maintenance of a grange here by the Citercian Abbey of
Beaulieu. Driginally it had been intended to found the abbey at Little
Faringdon but in 1204-5 the community noved to Beaulieu. The manor, however,
remained in nonastic hands and the chapel may have formed part of its grange
here.
(Buildings of England; Oxfordshire: pp684-5; VCH: II: Berkshire (1907), pp81-82;
colin Platt: The Monastic Grange in Medieval England (1969), p84)
[2436]

Listing NGR: SP2262701407

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532833

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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