St Mary's Church, Castle Street, Reading

St Mary's Church, Castle Street
St Mary's Church, Castle Street
St Mary's Church, Castle Street Location within Reading Town Centre
51°27′13.59″N 0°58′29.32″W / 51.4537750°N 0.9748111°W / 51.4537750; -0.9748111Coordinates: 51°27′13.59″N 0°58′29.32″W / 51.4537750°N 0.9748111°W / 51.4537750; -0.9748111
Location	Reading
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England (Continuing)
History
Founded	1798
Dedication	St Mary
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Style	Corinthian
Administration
Archdeaconry	N/A
Diocese	N/A

St Mary's Church, Castle Street is an independent church within the Continuing Anglican movement. It is located in the town centre of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and is a few yards from the similarly named, but much older Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin.

In 1798, there was a disagreement between the Bishop and the congregation of St Giles' Church in nearby Southampton Street. Many of the congregation left and founded a new chapel in Castle Street, on the site of Reading's old gaol. This chapel eventually became the Church of St Mary, Castle Street.^[1]

The church is a Grade II* listed building.^[2] The original 1798 building was a simple Georgian building, but in 1840 the present hexastyle portico in Corinthian style was added by local architect and builder . The frontage is rendered in stucco while the capitals of the portico are probably formed of Coade stone.^[3]

The church has one of Reading's best church interiors,^{[according to whom?]} with a late-18th-century gallery in 5 bays with marbled Doric ground floor and Ionic gallery columns. There is a modillion cornice to the coved central ceiling and a small projecting chancel with a bay for the mid-19th-century organ. The instrument, by Vowles of Bristol, is dated 1870, and was moved to St Mary's from Bristol in 1987. The church used to be lit by two mid-19th-century cast iron chandeliers.^[3]

Today the church forms part of the Church of England (Continuing), a small group of four congregations outside the Church of England, self-identified on their website as "evangelical, reformed, Anglican".^[4]

Gallery[]

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  The church in 1890 by Henry Taunt

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  The church in its current street context

References[]

External links[]

• Media related to St Mary's Church, Castle Street, Reading at Wikimedia Commons
• Official web page of St Mary's, Castle Street

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