St Mary's Church, Castle Street is an independent
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
within the
Continuing Anglican movement
The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion. The ...
. It is located in the town centre of
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
, in the English county of
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
, and is a few yards from the similarly named, but much older
Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin.
In 1798, there was a disagreement between the Bishop and the congregation of
St Giles' Church in nearby Southampton Street. Many of the congregation left and founded a new chapel in Castle Street, on the site of Reading's old gaol. This chapel eventually became the Church of St Mary, Castle Street.
The church is a Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
. The original 1798 building was a simple
Georgian building, but in 1840 the present
hexastyle portico in
Corinthian style was added by local architect and builder
Henry Briant
Henry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters
* Henry (surname)
* Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone
Arts and entertainment ...
. The frontage is rendered in
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
while the capitals of the portico are probably formed of
Coade stone
Coade stone or ''Lithodipyra'' or ''Lithodipra'' () is stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding neoclassical architecture, neoclassical statues, a ...
.
The church has a late-18th-century gallery in five bays with marbled
Doric ground floor and
Ionic gallery columns. There is a
modillion
A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
to the coved central ceiling and a small projecting
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
with a bay for the mid-19th-century
organ
Organ and organs may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function
* Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body.
Musical instruments
...
. The instrument, by
Vowles of Bristol, is dated 1870, and was moved to St Mary's from Bristol in 1987. The church used to be lit by two mid-19th-century
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...
chandelier
A chandelier () is an ornamental lighting device, typically with spreading branched supports for multiple lights, designed to be hung from the ceiling. Chandeliers are often ornate, and they were originally designed to hold candles, but now inca ...
s.
[
Today the church forms part of the ]Church of England (Continuing)
The Church of England (Continuing) is part of the Continuing Anglican Movement. It was founded in 1994.
Since 2008 the church has regularly exhibited at the Christian Resources Exhibition at Esher, Surrey and elsewhere in England. It publishes a ...
, a small group of four congregations outside the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
, self-identified on their website as "evangelical, reformed, Anglican".
Gallery
File:Castle Street, Reading, 1890.jpg, The church in 1890 by Henry Taunt
Henry William Taunt (1842–1922) was a professional photographer, author, publisher and entertainer based in Oxford, England.
Birth
Henry Taunt was born in Penson's Gardens in the parish of St Ebbe's, Oxford. His father Henry was a plumber a ...
File:Castle Street, Reading (1).jpg, The church in its current street context
References
External links
*
Official web page of St Mary's, Castle Street
Churches in Reading, Berkshire
Grade II* listed buildings in Reading
Grade II* listed churches in Berkshire
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