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SIRMON FAMILY GENEALOGYBuckland, Berkshire, UKUK History: St. Mary the Virgin |
In the Middle Ages the advowson of the Church went with the Manor. It was thus the privilege of the Lord of the Manor to choose the parish priest, at least from 1066 to 1352. In the latter year Edward III recovered the presentation of this church against Eleanor Giffard who was then in possession of the Manor. He presented John de Blewbury to the living. In 1353 the King granted the right to nominate priests to the College of Bonhomnes (Augustinian Brethren) of Edington, Wiltshire, who proceeded to hold the advowson until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1542, and it continued to be in the gift of the last Rector of Edington, Paul Bush, who was Bishop of Bristol from 1542-1554. From then until the Commonwealth, the Yates as Lords of the Manor, were the Patrons. The story of the Manor of Buckland and its families briefly is this: Apart from the long and various ownership going back to 957, we can start with the Yate family buying the Manor of Buckland in 1544 from Henry VIII for the princely sum of £1,408.14s.7d. John Yate then proceeded to rebuild the old manor house to the north of the church. However, the Yates being staunch Roman Catholics, stubbornly refused to give up their ideology to the whims of the State. Sir John Yate is often mentioned in the Berkshire recusancy lists in Elizabeth's reign. In 1690, Mary Yate married Sir Robert Throckmorton, baronet, of Coughton in Warwickshire, ending the Yate lineage; but the Throckmortons were also Catholics.
The Throckmortons continued to hold the Manorship of Buckland, having commenced the building of Buckland House in 1757. In 1910 the estate was sold to Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry, but it is remarkable that until then Buckland must have been one of the few Manors in England to have had an unbroken line of Roman Catholic lords for the 400 years following the Reformation. Following Sir Maurice's death the Estate passed to his wife and then to his grandson, Richard Wellesley, in 1947.
In the 17th and early 18th centuries the strong Puritan element in Berkshire drew many congregations away from the Anglican faith. According to a census of 1715 Buckland was among the dissenting churches and it is shown to have had a Presbyterian congregation numbering 150 - large for such a village.
The Church has been standing in Buckland for some eight centuries. In 1086 Domesday Book mentions a church 'on the Manor of Buckland' - maybe a Saxon church of wood, long before the present Church was built.
The Church is of cruciform plan consisting of a chancel with North vestry and Organ chamber, a central Tower, two Transepts, Nave and South Porch. The unusually wide Nave is 12th century, the Chancel and Transepts 13th Century and the Vestry and Organ chamber are Victorian.
Registers are deposited at Shire Hall, Reading. The Register of Burials goes back to 1678, that of Baptisms to 1691 and Marriages to 1692. The Diocesan Records have been transferred to the Oxford Record Office. There was an older Register of Births-Burials 'fairly written and as old as Queen Elizabeth's time containing a variety of articles of historical information relative to the Vicarage and to the Parish in general. But these records together with another ancient Parish book was lost (or as I rather suspect embezzled) by some parish officers several years ago'. In the handwriting of the Vicar in 1783 in answer to the questions of the Bishop of Sarum.
The large porch is 13th century but was rebuilt in the 19th. The trefoil-headed niche therein is 600 years old and contains a statue of the Virgin Mary to whom the Church is dedicated. The door has very ornately moulded hinges and ironwork of the 12th century. A shallow-cut segmented circle on the wall to the right hand side of the door may well have been used as a sundial to communicate at what time Mass would be said, before the porch was built. The window in the Westwall depicts the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan by St. John the Baptist and was designed by Burlisson and Grills and erected in 1919.
Built in the 12th century, the nave is unusually wide for the period, and both north and south doorways have excellent examples of Norman arches. Both are exact counterparts of each other, a rare occurrence in Norman work. There are two votive crosses on the jambs; some herringbone work on the west wall may even be pre-Norman.
There are five original deeply splayed Norman windows high up in the Nave, the two on the south side being discovered under lath and plaster in 1892 when they were opened out and restored at the expense of Mr. William West.
The Pews are mostly of old panelled Oak.
The Font at the West end is late 14th century octagonal, very well preserved and with a wooden lid. 
The bowl has panels alternately decorated with a cusped quatrefoil within a circle and with an arch containing 2 cinquefoiled arches with a dagger shape above. The stem and base are both stepped and chamfered. The plinth is edged with cut stones.
The West window. The top five lights depict the Crucifixion and the lower five the Nativity. It was erected in Memory of Warren Green, Church Warden 1923, donated by the parishioners post 1926, designed by Burlisson and Grylls.
The big window on the south side is the only window in the Church with tracery, except for the one in the porch. Note in the tracery the Heraldic glass showing four shields, most of it old, and the reference to the Niven family to which the film celebrity belonged. The first, De La Pole quartering Wingfield. The third Edington Priory derived from William Edington Chancellor of England and Bishop of Winchester, Founder of Edington College. The fourth quarters are the Arms of Newburgh and Beauchamp. The second which includes the Arms of the See of Oxford Diocese is not ancient. There were also the Arms of Sir Thomas Chaucer but these have been missing for at least a century.
One finds it is far lighter in the North Transept than the rest of the building owing to the absence of coloured glass. In the North wall the window has three lights with a segmented head and in common with the rest of the transept is 13th century. The remains of earlier lancet windows can be seen in the North and West walls. Two similar windows of 3 lights of clear glass with much restored 13th century jambs are found on the East and West sides. Faint remains of colour decoration, also dating from the 13th century can be seen on the West wall and in the North West corner. There is a trefoil headed piscine in the East wall. The ancient Iron Bound Chest was possibly made for donations to the Third Crusade (1189-92) for there is a hole in the lid for coins. It dates from that time or very soon after. The wood is thought to be Oak.
Two Helms are mounted high on the East wall. Both were part of the 'Funerary Achievements' of now unknown parishioners. Such 'achievements' were put up as memorials from the 14th-17th centuries. The helm on the left was made about 1540-1560, that on the right is of an Italian pattern about 1500-1520. The spikes on top of each are not original, they were fitted to enable the dead man's Crest carved in wood to be mounted. Both helms were treated some years ago by the Tower of London Armouries to preserve the metal.
Three Hatchments on wooden boards with black frames hang high up on the East and West walls, they were made for: Sir Robert Throckmorton (4th Bt. D: 1791) and his wife Lucy Heywood. Sir John Courtney Throckmorton (5th Bt. D: 1819) and his wife Maria Catherine Giffard, and Sir Charles Throckmorton (7th Bt. D: 1840) and his wife Mary Flowden. He also assumed the arms of Courtney on inheriting the estate of Molland in Devon from Sir George (6th Bt. D: 1839).
On a large Black Stone with a Brass, formerly on a table tomb but now set up against the North wall is a memorial to John Yate (d.1578) and his wife Mary Justice. This brass is said to be of special interest as it appears to show more portraiture than is usual for the period; for instance the stubble on John's face. Their five sons and seven daughters appear below. The Coat of Arms in the centre shows Yate quartered with Goddard complete with Crest of a Goat's head and full mantling. The four shields in the corners show impaling of: Top left - Yate/Hyde and Lovingcott. Top right - Yate/Goddard. Bottom left - Yate and Goddard/Fettiplace. Bottom right - Yate and Goddard/Justice.
Walking across to the South Transept, the character of the Church undergoes a complete change as one finds oneself in a chapel of Victorian splendour. All the work in this Transept was carried out at the expense of William West of Barcote in memory of his wife, Clara Jane, in 1890/92. West was a millionaire, a director of the Great Western Railway and appears to have been possessed of an extraordinary temper. He offered to build a belfry and place a set of bells in nearby Littleworth Church, but the vicar refused his charity on the grounds of impracticality. 
In a fit of pique West removed the remains of his child, buried in Littleworth, to Buckland, whence he proceeded to endow the Church with his money.
There is a three light segmental Window in the South Wall. In the top section three angels face inwards to the figure of Christ ascending in the centre. In the centre section three Apostles also face inwards gazing up at the ascending figure of Christ and in the centre the Virgin Mary kneeling with arms raised in adoration. The bottom section has on either side 2 women facing inwards, the one of the left with a naked baby in her arms, the one on the right leading a child by the hand. In the centre the figure of Christ seated with a child and 2 figures.
The Chancel is quite exquisite and has numerous points of interest. In the South wall is a piscine containing a beautiful alabaster carving of the Adoration of the Shepherds. 17th century Italian according to Pevsner, there is also a 3 stepped Sedilia of 3 bays each with a trefoil headed arch of the late 13th or early 14th century adjacent to it. The roof is beautiful with its massive tie-beams and curved braces with plain kind-posts. The shields of Edington Priory at the East end appear to be original. Other families represented on the shields are Southby, Hayward, St. Barbe, Furneaux, Lowther, Throckmorton and Acton.