page_title: Lambourn
section_title: Lambourn Church (minster) and almshouses
hierarchical_section_title: Lambourn / History / Lambourn Church (minster) and almshouses
caption_attribution_description: English: St Michael and All Angel: Lambourn. This square is a mixture of the village of Lambourn and farmland. This church is in the northern section of the square.
context_page_description: Lambourn is a large village and civil parish in West Berkshire. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of racehorse training in England, and is home to a rehabilitation centre for injured jockeys, an equine hospital, and several leading jockeys and trainers. To the north of the village are the prehistoric Seven Barrows and the nearby Long Barrow, and in 2004 the Crow Down Hoard was found close to the village.
context_section_description: The large, mainly Norman parish church (Church of England) is in the village centre facing the historic market place, with a surrounding wall built of sarsen stones, and is dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. The road pattern shows an original circular enclosure, suggesting pagan Celtic origins. Alfred the Great, born in Wantage, was also closely connected with this ancient landmark which has been a minster since Saxon times (officially known as Lambourn Minster since as early as 1032) and mentioned it in his will. It was probably King Canute who granted Lambourn Minster to the Dean of St Paul's. Successors to that office held it until 1836. Inside are monuments to the great and the good of the many manors in the parish, including an excellent brass to John Estbury (1508), who founded the almshouses outside, and fine effigies of Sir Thomas Essex and his wife (1558). The almshouses were established by an Act of Parliament in the reign of King Henry VII and confirmed by his son King Henry VIII after the Dissolution of the Monasteries made the original uncertain as it included a now forbidden chantry. There is an arch with mediaeval carvings of hunting scenes. The church was much restored in the 19th century and has a chancel roof designed by G. E. Street. The church also boasts a fine three-manual Henry Willis organ.
  The clock faces were replaced, and the tower stonework repaired, in 2011.
caption: St Michael and All Angels
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