• Home
• Cherwell
  • List of villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in Cherwell
  • Photography dates
• South Oxfordshire
  • List of villages
  • Thames-side villages
  • The Oxfordshire Chilterns
  • Recommended villages to visit in South Oxfordshire
  • Photography dates
• Vale of White Horse
  • List of villages
  • Thames-side villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in Vale of White Horse
  • Photography dates
• West Oxfordshire
  • List of villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in West Oxfordshire
  • Photography dates
• Information
  • Useful links
  • "Midsomer Murders" film locations
  • Link your website to Oxfordshire Villages
  • Weather forecast and traffic
  • Licenses and acknowledgements
  • Contact me

St. Andrew's Church in Letcombe Regisconsists of chancel 28 ft. by 18 ft. 6 in. with north vestry and organ chamber, nave 46 ft. 6 in. by 22 ft., south porch 7 ft. square, and west tower 12 ft. 6 in. by 13 ft., all these measurements being internal.

The two lower stages of the tower date from c. 1195. The priest's doorway on the south side of the chancel is 14th-century work, but with this exception the whole of the remainder of the building, where not modern, appears to belong to the 15th century. Some portion of the chancel walls may be contemporary with the doorway, but the moulded plinth suggests an entire rebuilding of the chancel in the 15th century, at which time also the upper stage of the tower was added and probably the nave entirely reconstructed. The extent of the original 12th-century church can only be surmised. In the 14th century a new chancel appears to have been built, and the jambs of the chancel arch may belong to this rebuilding. In the 15th-century reconstruction the priest's doorway only survived, and the building then assumed more or less of its present aspect. There were the usual internal changes in the 18th century, a west gallery containing an organ being erected. The pulpit and desk were in the south-east corner of the nave and the squire's pew on the north side of the chancel. A leaded roof was erected in 1737. In 1863 the church was restored, new roofs of higher pitch erected, the gallery and fittings removed, and the porch constructed.

The church is built of coursed rubble, originally rough-casted, and the roofs are covered with red tiles. The rough-cast has been stripped from the chancel and the south wall of the nave, but remains on the north side and on the tower.

The chancel has a four-centred east window of three cinquefoiled lights. In the north wall is a square-headed window of three cinquefoiled lights near the east end with four-centred rear arch, and in the south wall two similar windows, one on each side of the doorway. The doorway has a pointed arch with plain chamfered head and jambs. The west end of the north wall is open to the organ chamber by a modern arch and there is a doorway to the vestry. The chancel arch is modern, resting on older jambs of two chamfered orders. The walls are plastered inside and the roof is a modern boarded one of three bays. The lower part of a 15th-century chancel screen standing 3 ft. 10 in. high, with fourcentred traceried panels on each side of the opening, has been preserved.

The nave has two pointed windows in the north wall, one at each end, of two cinquefoiled lights with quatrefoil in the head, of early 15th-century date, and above each is a square-headed two-light window high up in the wall. Parker, in 1849, describes the nave as having 'two tiers of small windows, but this feature now exists only on the north side. The windows in the south wall are modern. Externally the nave is divided into three bays by buttresses of two stages, and the walls are plastered inside. The north doorway has a four-centred moulded arch without label, but is now built up, though the old oak door remains externally, where there is a mutilated stoup on the east side. The south doorway is modern. The porch has a timber front and gable with stone side walls. There were formerly seven steps down to the nave.

The tower is of three stages with diagonal buttresses at the western angles and square ones facing north and south on the east side. There is a string below the later belfry stage, but the two lower stages are externally unmarked. The parapet is embattled and has iron ornaments at the angles and gargoyles north and south. In the middle stage there are original windows on the north, south and west sides, each of two pointed lights divided by a shaft with carved capital and moulded base. The windows facing north and south have continuous chamfered heads and jambs, but that on the west has an impost moulding at the spring of the arch. The west window in the lower stage consists of a single lancet without label, widely chamfered outside. The acutely-pointed tower arch is of a single order chamfered towards the nave and springing at a height of 9 ft. 6 in. from chamfered imposts. There is no vice, access to the belfry being by a ladder.

The font is of 12th-century date and consists of a circular tub-shaped bowl with scalloping round the top between two round mouldings and stands on a circular moulded base without stem. It has a flat 17th-century wooden cover. The pulpit and other fittings are modern.

Some old coloured glass remains in the east window, but there was formerly more. It was described in 1849 as 'nearly perfect,' but it suffered greatly in the restoration of 1863. At the top of the middle light is a small figure of our Lord seated, His body bare and a yellow garment thrown over His shoulders and lower limbs. His hands are raised and blood is flowing from the wounds in His hands and side. A rich nimbus is shown up by a background of blue and gold. The feet are on either side of a circular object and there is a groundwork of black and white pavement below. The figure, which is within a quatrefoil partly made up with later materials, is older than the window and may be of 14th-century date. Above it is the inscription Inri on a scroll, probably from a late and now vanished crucifixion. Lower down in the middle light are a pair of cross bones and a yellow four-leaved flower or star, and below these again a shield partly made up, with some of the tinctures and bearings gone, but with the names Langley and Tame above. Below the shield again is a blazing sun within a circle. In the dexter or north light is a large shield with the arms of Montagu Earl of Salisbury (Argent a fesse indented of three points gules), and at the bottom a made-up shield with one lozenge and part of a black and white pavement, together with the word '(g)audium,' all that remains of a black-letter inscription. The south light has a shield near the top, Or a bat vert, which is said to be the arms of the Mermylle family, and at the bottom a made-up shield corresponding to that in the north light, with part of another inscription, 'ohn Mermylle uxor sue.' In each of the three lights are small diamond-shaped quarries with six-leaved flowers of 15th-century date and borders of roses and crowned M's and S's. In the smaller upper lights are a crowned female head and the head and part of the body of another figure, with M's and S's in circles and portions of borders. The glass is of different dates, but most of it may be ascribed to the 15th century.

In the vestry is a small brass of a lady, the head gone, bearing the inscription, 'Hic jacet Alicia Estbury filia Johis Estbury et Agnetis . . .,' and there are also mural tablets to Anne Grove (d. 1669) and Martha (d. 1694) and Margaret (d. 1698), daughters of the Rev. John Hunsdon, vicar. In the nave is a mural monument erected in 1731 to Alexander Fettiplace (d. 1712), his wife, two sons and a daughter, with the arms of Fettiplace impaling Head, and another to Francis Pigott (d. 1756) and other members of the Pigott family. There are also a number of early 19th-century tablets, one exhibiting a pedigree of the Goodlake family. 

There are remains of paintings on the walls of the nave, including the figures of a man with a scythe and a woman with a sheaf.

There is a ring of six bells: the oldest (fifth) was cast by Joseph Carter of Reading in 1599; the third and tenor are by Henry Knight of Reading, 1620 and 1621 respectively; the fourth by Oliver Cor of Aldbourne, 1726; and the treble and second by James Wells of Aldbourne, 1805. The bells were rehung in 1905. 

The plate consists of an Elizabethan cup and cover paten, the former inscribed 'Letcombe Regis in Com. Berks,' and a flagon of 1720 given by Mrs. Theodosia Fettiplace.

The registers before 1812 are as follows: the first volume, which was for a long time lost, contains baptisms and marriages from 1547 to 1697 and burials to 1698; there are also some entries of baptisms and marriages in 1536; the second contains baptisms 1697 to 1794, marriages 1697 to 1754, and burials 1698 to 1798; and the third baptisms and burials to 1812.

To the south of the church are two fine yew trees and a monument to George King Hipango, a Maori chieftain, who died at Letcombe Regis in 1871, aged nineteen years

Historical information about St. Andrew's Church is provided by 'Parishes: Letcombe Regis', in A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4, ed. William Page and P H Ditchfield (London, 1924), pp. 222-228. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol4/pp222-228 [accessed 6 March 2023].

St. Andrew's Church is a Grade II* listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST ANDREW, Letcombe Regis - 1368706 | Historic England.

For more information about St. Andrew's Church see Parishes: Letcombe Regis | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).