St. Michael, Cumnor, Berkshire

Description

The church of St. Michael is an edifice of stone, generally in the Transitional Norman style, with insertions and additions of a century later, and consists of chancel, nave, north aisle, a chapel at the east end of the south aisle, which served as a mortuary chapel for the abbey of Abingdon, north porch and a battlemented western tower containing a clock and 6 bells; the west doorway is Norman and the tower arch a fine example of Transitional work: against the north wall of the chancel is the rich canopied altar-tomb of Anthony Forster, c. 1572, and whose epitaph, of 32 verses, speaks highly of him as being amiable and accomplished; the tomb has at the back brasses of himself in armour, and his wife Ann (Williams), with several children and shields of arms: there are other brasses to Catherine (Williams), wife of Henry Staverton, gent. 1577; and to Deodatus Staverton, and his wife Edith (Williams), c. 1580; there is also a memorial to Benjamin Buckler D.D. sometime fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, vicar here and rector of Frilsham, 1755-80; he was editor of the "Stemmata Chicheleiana" and keeper of the university archives at Oxford, and was buried here 24th Dec. 1780: in the church is preserved a very fine example of a chained Bible, dated 1611, and said to have been used by the Oxford University Press in 1832-3 for producing an exact reprint of the authorised version: a list of vicars, in the church, commences in 1314, and has been continued to the present time: there is also a full-length statue in Caen stone of Queen Elizabeth, crowned, and bearing the orb and sceptre, said to have been erected by the Earl of Leicester, in the gardens of Old Cumnor Place: a handsome memorial has been erected to the late Sir William Wilson Hunter K.C.S.I., C.I.E. who died February 7th, 1900, aged 59: the church affords 300 sittings.

Church Records

The registers all date from 1559.