The Church of St Peter and Paul, Yattendon, Berkshire

My friend and I took a drive out to Yattendon, mostly for the breakfast at the local cafe called The Pantry in the village, but also to see if we could visit the church for a little historic sightseeing. There's a little car parking area opposite the pub, and from there you can see what looks like a market cross. Standing at The Pantry facing the pub, you turn right, and in a couple of minutes you arrive at the beautiful church of St Peter and St Paul. 

Yattendon was a busy place back in the medieval period. It was among the lands held by the crown in Saxon times, and was owned by King Alfred's wife Ealhswith. After the Norman invasion it was mentioned in Domesday Book in 1086, and William the Conqueror granted it to the de la Beche family of nearby Aldworth. Yattendon was granted its own market in 1258, later confirmed to John de la Beche in 1319. Eventually, the manor passed into the hands of the Norreys family, and Sir John Norreys built a Manor House in the fifteenth century, along with much of the medieval foundations of the church that survives today in around 1450.

The medieval church, like so many of Berkshire's local churches, was restored in the nineteenth century. Yattendon was rebuilt in 1858, and Alfred Waterhouse, the architect responsible for many of these churches, is buried inside. A monument opposite the door remembers him as a man of the parish. Waterhouse is believed to have conducted Victorian additions to the building here in 1881-1896. The medieval walls were built in flint stone, although the tower was restored and rebuilt over the centuries. 

Yattendon Church, Jo Romero

Quite often in these 'restored' churches of the Victorian era you still see medieval brasses, effigies and other visible traces of the older church. Here, most of the inside looks nineteenth century or later. The font, usually pretty ancient, dates to the 1800s or later, and there are no medieval wall paintings or other visible monuments. Ashmole however, in his History and Antiquities of Berkshire, mentions seeing a 'kneeling figure of a knight, his two wives, sons and daughters, and part of an inscription'. Sadly, I could find no trace of it inside. Ashmole recorded some of the inscription of the monument, revealing that it belonged to John Norreys, the founder of the medieval church. 

There's a beautiful timber ceiling inside, and some stained glass windows. The door of the church looks pretty ancient, older even than the 1800s to me, and has an interesting decorative knocker with series of lines etched into it. A visitor to the church in 1915 made a note of the bells in the tower, which dated to 1627, 1653, 1656, 1660 and 1756. An earlier bell was believed to have been added in the reign of Henry VI, dating it to John Norreys' work on the church in 1450. The bell was engraved with Henry's symbol of a leopard, and fleur de lys patterns. 

There are various monuments to the Norreys and Bertie families who have lived in the village for centuries, and on the internal wall near the bell tower are monuments with the dates 1711 and 1732. Our visitor of 1911 also noted a south doorway which is part of the pre-existing medieval church. They state: 

'The south doorway within a porch has been almost entirely renewed. It is square-headed. The door is old with the original lock, and a very good iron escutcheon above. The tower was re-built in 1896, but the west doorway was preserved. It is a good specimen of 15th century work with a label terminating in circles enclosing roses.'

I didn't find any medieval brasses or monuments to go home and research for my Forgotten History series on Substack, but Yattendon church is really beautiful and worth a visit. There's an old and gnarly yew tree in the churchyard, an organ inside, and the church is really well kept. There are some hints of the previous medieval church, but the overall look on the inside is Victorian. Definitely worth a visit though, and I can recommend The Pantry as a lovely place to stop for a bite, too.

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Source: Visit in February 2026, and Ditchfield, Rev. P. H. The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Archaeological Journal, 1915. Published by Slaughter, London.