St. Denis, Stanford in the Vale, Berkshire
Description
The church of St. Denis is a building of stone, furnishing good examples of the Early English and Decorated styles, and consists of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and a fine Early English western tower with additions in the Perpendicular style, 80 feet high, containing 6 bells and a clock; the church was built about 1200, but so much altered and added to about 1350 as to be nearly rebuilt; in 1851 £500 was spent in its repair and restoration, and during the period 1883-5 the church was further restored at a cost of £620: the chancel, 40 feet in height, is Decorated; the windows relieved by geometrical tracery, contain some original glass; it has a plain open-timbered roof, a curiously fine piscina with semi-octagonal tabernacle above and a small oblong opening to it, probably a reliquary, and on the north side a double locker; in the centre of the chancel is a large brass with demi-effigy to Roger Campdene, priest, 1398; a hagioseope and, stairs to the rood loft also remain: the nave has three wide arches on the north side, on octagonal piers without caps: beneath the aisle roof are the original Early English clerestory windows, now blocked: the south door and porch are of the same date: there is a Decorated vestry: the oaken font, with canopy and pulpit, are Elizabethan: six of the windows are stained: in the nave is a mural monument, restored in 1840, to Captain Francis Knollys, commandant of the trained bands of the Abingdon Division, ob. 4th August, 1640, and in the chancel, a memorial to John Heigham esq. Marshal of the Hall to James I. and Charles I. and son of John Heigham esq. of Giffords, Suffolk, ob. 20th May, 1632; there is also an inscribed tablet to the Rev. George Henry Proctor M.A. 4 years curate of this parish, who died at Scutari, near Constantinople, 10th March, 1856: in the churchyard is a coffin slab of the 13th century, and many tombstones to the Whitefield family: there are 400 sittings.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1558.