Aldworth is one of my favourite churches, and I remember so vividly walking up towards it as the sunset began to glow a warm orange in the sky behind it. Very atmospheric!
Around the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086, the manor was owned by Theodoric, a goldsmith. In the thirteenth century it was owned by the de Clares and then the de Musgros family, before being passed by marriage, to the Ferrars. The de la Beche family were also active in the parish, and owned other manors in the village. Eventually, the church was governed by a nunnery near Windsor, that of Bromhale, which was closed during the Reformation in the sixteenth century.
The church appears at the top of a slight hill, and behind are fields, giving it a beautifully rural and romantic appearance. The yew tree in the churchyard is said to be almost 1,000 years old but looked very withered when we visited. A visitor in the early twentieth century noted that it was about four feet high and measured 28 feet wide, adding that 'its vitality seems to be at rather a low ebb, but it will probably last for many generations yet to come'.
It's believed that a church existed on the site since the early medieval period. Later, works on the west tower and nave date to the 1200s, while the building of the chancel dates to 1315. The south chapel was built to house the de la Beche effigies, which are known locally as The Aldworth Giants. Like so many churches in and around Berkshire, it was rebuilt in many places in the Victorian period, in 1871, but lots of medieval and historical features still survive, thankfully. The pulpit is also believed to have been brought from St Laurence's church in Reading after the town centre church took delivery of a more modern one in the 1700s.
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| The ancient Yew tree at Aldworth |
Although it is well out of the way, the church is said to have entertained two very famous figures. A long-standing tradition states that Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester visited. Legend is that Dudley plucked a genealogy of the de la Beches off the wall of the church to show the queen, and it promptly disappeared, having been taken or misplaced. I explored the relationship between Elizabeth and Dudley in my book Power Couples of the Tudor Era, arguing for their efforts in changing the realm and later generations together. After all my research I felt like I got to know them a little bit better and so it was lovely to wonder whether they stood where I stood inside the building some 500 years ago.
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| Effigy of Joan de la Beche |
The church is probably most famous for the effigies of the de la Beche family, who were medieval lords of manors here. They are represented in different poses and are in various states of disrepair, although some damage is attributed to Oliver Cromwell and his soldiers who ransacked the church in the mid-1600s. You can find out all about the effigies and who they represent in another post, where I explore them in more detail.
A really atmospheric and beautiful church, and a must for fellow effigy hunters like myself.
Interested in women's history? Check out my first book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses published by Pen and Sword Books. It discusses many woman of the fifteenth century conflict that played parts we don't often hear about today. You can Order your copy here.
Source: The Berkshire Archaeological Journal, 1915, via archive.org.
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