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Summary

Grade II listed church, largely rebuilt in 19th century but with tower dating from 1748, possible Domesday documentation and suggestion of reused Roman material

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1117302: CHURCH OF ST PETER
• Conservation Area: Brimpton

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Berkshire SMR No. (pre 2000): 03921.03.000
  
• Church Heritage Record: 9594
  
• Old Listed Building Ref (pre 1984) (C): ø Map NO 36 14/230 Church of St. Peter
  1869 - 72 by John Johnson. Large flint building in decorated style. Tower dates from 1748 in brick faced with flint, broach spire. Interior has polished granite piers.

Monument Type(s):

• CHURCH (11th century - 1086 AD to 1086 AD)
• PARISH CHURCH (18th century to Late 19th century - 1748 AD to 1900 AD)

Full Description

On site of earlier church.
Listing description: Church. 1869-72 by John Johnson in a Neo-Gothic style. Flint with stone dressings, plinth, parapetted gables with footstones, kneelers and coping; tile roof and shingled spire. Rich Decorated style with hood moulds throughout. West tower and spire, nave and aisles, south aisle chapel, south porch, north transeptal chapel chancel and vestry. West tower: 3 stages with angle buttresses, broach spire and weathervane. Heavily moulded west doorway with ballflower ornament, 3-light window above, 2-light bell chamber openings on all faces, and clocks to north and south. Gabled timber south porch on low walls with arched bracing and decorated barge-boards. South aisle: south door with simple 2 centered moulded arch. 3-light window to right, west end with traceried lancet and diagonal buttress. South aisle chapel to east of 2 bays, 2-light windows with ogee tracery; east end has ogee doorway with caved tympanum and hood mould with carved finial, rose window above with cinquefoil tracery. North aisle: two 2-light windows, diagonal buttresses and lancet with plate tracery to west. North transeptal chapel: 3-light north window, quatrefoil above in gable end, and diagonal buttresses. Chancel: 3-light east window and 2-light windows to north and south. Vest : rose window to east and lancet to north. Interior: Nave: 3 bay arcades to north and south with octagonal marble piers, foliated capitals and chamfered arches with hood moulds and stops. Arch braced roof with foliated corbels. North transept: shafted north window with moulded capitals and braces. Chancel: chamfered chancel arch on short columns corbelled out on carved heads. Shafted east window with moulded capitals and bases, cusped rear arch with hood mould and carved stops. 2-light opening to organ chamber to north with central marble shaft and cusped arches, quatrefoil in tympanum, and ballflower ornament. Window sedilia to south. Contemporary octagonal stone pulpit and wooden lectern. Square stone font with quatrefoil panels on 4 marble columns. <1>

The tower is brick dating from 1748, faced with flint and provided with a spire <2>. Peake <5> noted that in the 18th century it was reported that hypocaust tiles and Roman brick were built into the walls of Brimpton Church, although the references he gives are 19th century ones. There are two churches in Brimpton in the Domesday Survey <3><8>; it is assumed that one is St Leonard's Chapel, but the other held by Ralph de Mortimer may have been on the site of St Peter's.

A short description of the church prior to its restoration was given from a visit of the British Archaeological Association in 1860 <10>. The nave was of the 12th century, the north wall had an ambry part built with a large Roman flue tile. There was 'an arrangement ..very cleverly made to aid the deaf in hearing the discourse from the pulpit <10>, and the window over the pulpit held some ancient stained glass apparently dated to about 1260 or 1270. In a corner of a garden at the churchyard gate were the stocks with original ironwork.

An undated newspaper cutting in the Walter Money collection in Reading library <4> records that two objects had 'lately been presented to the Museum of the Literary Institution' (the forerunner of the Newbury Museum) by the vicar of Brimpton, discovered during the course of alterations at the church. These were a Roman flue-tile, suggesting that the church stood on or near the site of an important building; and a medieval prick spur.

Brimpton parish church is one of three in West Berkshire built or rebuilt by Victorian architect John Johnson. The others are Woolhampton and Midgham on the north side of the Kennet Valley.

The revised Pevsner <9> records that the church was built for James Blyth of Woolhampton House at a cost of £3,700.

It is marked on Rocque's map of 1761 <20>, the Kingsclere Ordnance Survey Drawing of 1808 <21>, the Brimpton Enclosure map of 1815 <22> and the Brimpton Tithe map of 1842 <23>.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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