Church of St Mary

Church of St. Mary, Slough

This is a church of exceptional architectural and historical importance, comprising work from the 12th and 14th centuries with significant additions and alterations spanning the 17th to 19th centuries. The building is constructed of flint and rubble with limestone dressings, with the south transept in red brick and a cement-rendered west porch. The roofs are of old tile, with separate coverings over the nave, aisle, and lower chancel. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle and chapel, south transeptal chapel, south transeptal library, west porch, and a north-west tower.

The red brick tower, built in 1609, has a flint base to its north and west faces, with cement-rendered dressings. It rises in four stages with angle buttresses (the north-west buttress being diagonal) and features moulded strings between the second and third stages and above the top stage. It is crowned with a coped battlemented parapet and carries a flagpole with weathervane. The bell chamber on the third stage has arched louvred openings flanked by small rectangular openings on the west and north faces, with small rectangular openings on the east and south faces. The third stage also contains a small rectangular opening to the south and an arched opening to the north, while a clock on the west face is surmounted by a small carved Kederminster shield. The second stage has an arched opening to the west with two arched lights, and the first stage contains an arched opening to the west with two arched lights and an arched doorway to the north with a boarded door.

The nave features a three-light gabled dormer to the south with diamond leaded panels, and a three-light west window with panelled tracery and returned hoodmould. An arched doorway beneath carries a boarded door. The west porch, added in 1818, is gabled to the north, south, and west with a round arched entrance and two-light openings to the north and south.

The chancel displays on its south side a large central buttress and a diagonal buttress to the east, with three two-light windows (two to the right with square heads) and a boarded door with chamfered arch beneath the central window. The east end contains a large three-light window with reticulated tracery and returned hoodmould.

The south transeptal chapel of 1613 has a large 12-light mullioned and transomed south window with diamond leading and a depressed arched doorway beneath it.

The south transeptal library features two rectangular windows to the south and a small rectangular window in the gable end above, all with diamond leading, together with a two-light square-headed window to the west and a stack with square shaft and moulded top.

The north aisle and chapel, with an arcade dated 1630, display on the north side two large buttresses and a diagonal buttress to the east, with four two-light windows featuring returned hoodmould and diamond leading. The east end contains a large three-light window with reticulated tracery and returned hoodmould.

The interior of the nave features a five-bay tie beam roof and a timber north aisle arcade of 1630 with coupled unfluted Doric columns and Ionic end pilasters with projecting lozenge decoration supporting a triglyph frieze. An earlier chamfered arch survives to the west, and the chancel arch is also chamfered. The chancel possesses a three-bay waggon roof, while the north chapel contains a two-bay arcade with octagonal piers, chamfered arches and hoodmoulds with carved stops. A notable feature is a four-bay sedilia and piscina with triple shafts, bell capitals, trefoiled arches and foliated spandrels. The north aisle and chapel contain a six-bay double purlin queen post roof. Many windows retain internal shafting, hoodmoulds and carved stops, including carvings of 'green men'.

The church contains an exceptional collection of fittings and monuments of considerable interest. These include a 15th-century chancel screen of five bays with ogee-headed divisions, traceried panels and battlemented top; a pulpit dated 1609 with strapwork; a 15th-century octagonal stone font with carved quatrefoil panels; a south chapel screen in Coade stone of 1792 with three tall arches, two columns deep, quatrefoil piers, quatrefoils in spandrels, quadripartite vaulting with shield bosses and wrought iron railings; and a Kederminster Pew of 1623 with painted panelling inside and out, including the 'eye of God', painted inscriptions, fretwork, opening lattice panels, and an open parapet with obelisks and strapwork. The church also contains a 17th-century gallery in the west arch of the nave arcade with cut balusters, a north aisle west gallery bearing a list of benefactors, an 18th-century brass chandelier in the chancel, a 1625 Royal coat of arms in the western arch of the nave arcade, six hatchments, and creed and commandment boards. Remains of 17th-century wall painting matching the pew design survive in the south transeptal chapel, and fragments of 15th-century glass appear in a north chapel west window.

The Kederminster Library, given in 1623 and housed in the former south porch from 1631, is a unique survival. It comprises painted panelling decorated with local scenes, Kederminster portraits and trompe-l'oeil books on the inside of the shelf doors, together with a painted chimney-piece and overmantel consisting of Tuscan half columns supporting a painted frieze and dentil cornice, flanking painted allegorical figures surrounding an oval centre-piece with painted shields.

The monuments include a 1599 monument in the chancel to the Kederminster family in alabaster with two Corinthian columns supporting an entablature with coat of arms, with two facing pairs of kneeling figures and their children below; a 1626 tablet in the chancel with Latin inscription and pilasters supporting a cornice with military trophies and coat of arms; a 1684 tablet in the north aisle to Dorothy King with Ionic pilasters and broken segmental pediment with coat of arms; a 1788 monument to David Harvey in Coade stone with a woman standing beside an angled pedestal with urn; a 1794 monument in the north chapel to Robert Gosling with obelisk, sarcophagus and urn; a 1825 monument in the south chapel to Robert Bateson Harvey featuring a seated figure of a christian pilgrim; and two brasses to Robert Harvey of 1863 and to Robert Bateson Harvey of 1887.

The church is of particular interest for its exceptional wealth of fittings and monuments, notably the Kederminster Library, which is a unique survival. The churchyard contains a memorial to the artist Paul Nash (1889–1946).