St Mary Magdalene's Church, Boveney

St Mary Magdalene's Church, Boveney
St Mary Magdalene's Church, Boveney, from the southeast
St Mary Magdalene's Church, Boveney Location in Buckinghamshire
Coordinates: 51°29′25″N 0°38′51″W / 51.4903°N 0.6474°W / 51.4903; -0.6474
OS grid reference	SU 940 776
Location	Boveney, Buckinghamshire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Friends of Friendless Churches
History
Dedication	Mary Magdalene
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	23 September 1955
Architectural type	Church
Groundbreaking	12th century
Completed	15th century
Specifications
Materials	Flint and chalk rubble, with ashlar dressings

St Mary Magdalene's Church is a redundant Anglican church standing close to the river on the north bank of the Thames, near the village of Boveney, Buckinghamshire, England. It is about 3 kilometres (2 mi) to the west of Eton College. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building,^[1] and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.^[2]

Early history

A church has been on the site since before the Norman conquest,^[3] but the fabric of the present church dates from the 12th century.^[1] Windows and the tower were added in the 15th century.^[1] The church was built to serve the bargemen working on the River Thames;^[2] there was a quay alongside the church but there are now no remains of this.^[2] It was a chapel of ease to St Peter's Church, Burnham. An attempt to make it into a separate parish in 1737 failed because sufficient endowment could not be raised.^[3] Probably in the middle of the 19th century, a dado of bricks was added to the exterior in an attempt to keep out damp, and in 1897 the window tracery was replaced.^[4]

Architecture

St Mary's in constructed in flint and chalk rubble, with ashlar dressings.^[1] Small fragments of flint have been inserted in the mortar; this process is partly functional and partly decorative, and is known as galletting.^[2] The tower is weatherboarded;^[1] it stands on a timber framework, which itself stands on the ground.^[3] The door is in the south wall. High in the west wall is a small narrow lancet window that probably dates from the 12th century.^[3] Inside the church, some of the original 15th-century pews are still present.^[3] Other fittings date from the 18th and 19th centuries.^[2] Contained in a glass-fronted box on the north wall of the church are fragments of painted and gilded alabaster sculptures, possibly dating from the 15th century; these depict biblical themes.^[3] There is a ring of three bells. The largest of these dates from about 1536 and was cast at the foundry in Reading; the other two bells were cast in 1631 and 1636 by Ellis I. Knight.^[5]

Recent history and present day

The church was declared redundant in 1975, and it was planned to demolish it or convert it into residential accommodation.^[3] However following a local campaign, it passed into the care of the charity the Friends of Friendless Churches in 1983.^[2][3] The charity holds a 999 year lease with effect from 10 June 1983.^[6] The church is still consecrated, and has been used for occasional services since 1983.^[3] However the church then had to be closed because it was found that the tower had become unstable, and repair was essential.^[7] When 19th-century plaster was removed from the footings of the tower, it was found that they were almost completely rotten.^[8] The cost of the repair totalled £200,000. Of this, 70% was received as a grant from English Heritage, and the remainder was raised from a number of sources. These included Sir John Smith and the Francis Coales Charitable Foundation, and Eton College who donated the proceeds of their annual "Concert for the Choir".^[7] The repair of the tower has been completed, and in 2010–11 another round of repairs is underway, including work on the windows.^[7] The repair work carried out on the tower won the Royal Institute of British Architects South Conservation Award for Architects in 2005.^[8]

References

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