page_title: Burghfield
section_title: St Mary's Parish Church
hierarchical_section_title: Burghfield / Churches / St Mary's Parish Church
caption_attribution_description: English: Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Burghfield, Berkshire
context_page_description: Burghfield is a village and large civil parish in West Berkshire, England, with a boundary with Reading. Burghfield can trace its history back to before the Domesday book, and was once home to three manors: Burghfield Regis, Burghfield Abbas and Sheffield. Since the 1980s the population of Burghfield has nearly doubled with the construction of many new housing estates, dependent for its employment on, for instance, Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke and M4 corridor which bisects the edge of the area.
  Most of the formerly sparsely inhabited fields of the hamlet or locality of Pingewood, in the north of the parish, are divided by the M4 motorway and have been converted after gravel extraction in the mid to late 20th century into lakes and their shores mostly used for water sports, fishing, and other leisure activities. They are also a habitat for migrating geese, water fowl and other wildlife. A few higher pits/quarries in this area have been drained, clay-lined and used as landfill.
  Burghfield has many amenities — the majority are sports clubs and facilities, including a leisure centre, educational or religious.
context_section_description: The Church of England parish church of St Mary in Church Lane, Burghfield village, was originally built in the 12th century, but early in the Victorian era it was completely demolished and replaced by a Norman revival building designed by J.B. Clacy of Reading and completed in 1843. The original church had a stepped wooden tower, and the building is depicted in one of the stained glass windows.
  The parish church contains a number of church monuments from the old St. Mary's, including the alabaster effigy of an important historic figure, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury the father of Warwick the Kingmaker. He fought for the Yorkist cause during the Wars of the Roses, and was executed after the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. He was buried first at Pontefract, but his son transferred his body to the family mausoleum at Bisham Priory and erected this effigy as part of his monument there. It is not clear why it was brought to Burghfield after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The effigy of a lady alongside him wears a headdress which is not thought to be of the right date to be his wife, but she may be one of the earlier Countesses of Salisbury buried at Bisham.
  Other monuments from the old St. Mary's that survive in the 1843 building include a damaged early 14th century effigy of a knight, and two other recumbent stone effigies that have been defaced. There is also a memorial brass to Nicholas Williams (died 1568) and his two wives.
  The church has six bells hung for change ringing:
caption: St.Mary's Church
exif: {}