Chairman Peter Durrant enjoyed walking round the churches of Newbury last September
Saturday 11 September. The three of us – myself, one of our trustees, Catherine Haig, and a long-standing supporter of the Trust and High Sheriff of Berkshire, Willie Hartley-Russell – met at St Mary’s Church, Shaw-cum-Donnington (above). It was a cloudy, slightly chilly morning, and we were glad of our coats, though as it turned out, we wouldn’t need them for long. After a short interval the clouds parted, the sun came out, and we walked into a perfect autumn morning. And ours was a walk with a purpose – first, to see some of Berkshire wonderful churches, and second, to raise money to help keep them weathertight and watertight so that they can continue to used for worship and community activities for many years to come.
St Mary’s was open, and a churchwarden was there to greet us. We immediately felt welcome. The church is a slightly curious building. ‘Neo-Norman’ is the usual description, though it’s not like any church the ‘real’ Normans would have bult in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. And in spite of its modest size it has a real hammer-beam roof in the nave (painted blue!) But it’s obviously loved, and there was plenty of evidence of activity, for all ages, scattered around. It was a good start to our day.
Our next destination was Speen, reached via an unscheduled stop at the charming Donnington Hospital, and a walk across Speen recreation ground, where energetic people were setting up for an autumn fair. St Mary’s church, above, is tucked away at the end of Church Lane. Backed by woodland, it feels a world away from Newbury, though in reality the town is almost on its doorstep. Here a group of parishioners were preparing for an open day, with a local history exhibition, a book launch, and refreshments. What a brilliant way to share in Ride and Stride! We were made warmly welcome, stayed and chatted and enjoyed a cup of tea and piece of cake (though we don’t usually take refreshment so early in our walk, and we knew it would put us behind schedule, the cake was just too tempting).
From Speen we walked into Newbury, down Northbrook Street full of shoppers enjoying the Saturday sunshine, and past the surprisingly Anglican-looking Methodist Church (above). Happily this was open, for a wedding, and we were just in time to get a sneak view of the galleried interior before the wedding started. Then on to the parish church of St Nicolas. This is a truly splendid building, rivalling the great wool churches of the Cotswolds (and perhaps that’s not so surprising as it was paid for in the early sixteenth century from the profits of the local wool trade). Here we lingered, admiring the spacious interior, and the fine set of stained windows depicting parables and miracles, apostles and saints, installed in the nineteenth century and funded by the Newbury Stained Glass Window Society.
St John’s church, shown above, our next stop, was quite different. This was built in the 1950s to replace a Victorian church destroyed by bombs in the second World War. It’s built of brick – some two million of them, we were told. Here we met and had a lovely chat with the curate, learning more about the building and about its role in the community.
Finally, back to Shaw, via Newbury Market Place, crossing Victoria Park (and pausing to admire Queen Victoria’s statue), past St Joseph’s Roman Catholic church (shown above, closed, unfortunately), across the Robin Hood roundabout (or, more accurately, under it, since we sensibly took the pedestrian underpass), and across the park, getting a glimpse of the magnificent Shaw House before we arrived back at our starting point.
It was a splendid morning. We had great company on the walk, saw five fascinating and very different churches, and met some lovely people whose pride in and love for their church buildings was palpable. And we raised several hundred pounds for the Berkshire Historic Churches Trust. Would we do it again? Most certainly. In fact, we’re already planning our walk for 2022.
