Published: Thursday, 15th May, 2008 07:00
Airing an old view or two
Comments (0)
Print Article
THE cataloguing of the library’s collection of local illustrations has now reached Pangbourne, and the Church of St James the Less.
I’m afraid that the church was allowed to become derelict, to such an extent that Mr W H Woodman, the Reading architect, reported in 1865 that “the dilapidation of the building had become very far advanced,” and he had “never examined a church that as a whole was in a worse condition for the performance of religious worship.
There was a total lack of any features of historical or architectural interest in the church.”
Fortunately, that is not the impression you get when you visit St James’s today!
As a result of Mr Woodman’s survey, all of the church was demolished and rebuilt to his designs – with the exception of the handsome brick tower, which dates from 1718.
The rebuilding was in knapped flint, with stone dressings, and the church was re-opened in 1866.
We know something of what the old church looked like from the engraving by Charles Tomkins, published in his collection of “Views of Reading Abbey,” in 1805. (Perhaps I should explain that in the book, there are also views of the churches which had belonged to Reading Abbey, of which this was one.)
Here we have the only photograph I have so far come across showing the church in its pre-1865 condition, so I thought it deserved an airing.
In fact, as you can see, there are two almost identical pictures, side-by-side, which were made to fit into a stereoscopic viewer, to give a three-dimensional illusion.
Further Details
