St Michael's Church, Bray, is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

parish church in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Bray, Berkshire Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a suburban village and civil parish in the Windsor and Maidenhead district, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire. It sits on the banks of the River Thames, to the southeast of Maidenhead with which it is ...

History

The church dates from 1293, supposedly to replace a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church at

Water Oakley Water Oakley is a hamlet on the River Thames in the civil parish of Bray, in the Windsor and Maidenhead district, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. It is the location of both Bray Film Studios and the Oakley Court Hotel. History ...

. It was partly rebuilt ca. 1500 and extensively restored 1857–82 by

Thomas Henry Wyatt Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected president of the Royal Institute of British Architects for 1870–1873 and being awarded its Royal Gold Me ...

. It has a number of sculptures which may have come from the earlier church, including a damaged

Sheela na Gig A sheela na gig is a figurative carving of a naked woman displaying an exaggerated Human vulva, vulva. These carvings, from the Middle Ages, are Grotesque (architecture), architectural grotesques found throughout most of Europe on Architecture ...

. The

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

shares the wider parish boundaries so is named Bray St Michael with Braywoodside. In 1938, the royal funeral of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, was held at St Michael's, after which the marquess was buried in Bray Cemetery.

Monuments

The church contains several brasses from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, notably that of 1378 to Sir John Foxley, the Constable of

Southampton Castle Southampton Castle was located in the town of Southampton in Hampshire, England. Constructed after the Norman conquest of England, it was located in the north-west corner of the town overlooking the River Test, initially as a wooden motte and ...

. Other monuments are: *William Goddard of Philibert, d.1609, founder of Jesus Hospital, and Joyce Maunsell his wife, d.1622. *Mary Hanger (d.1738) sculpted by

Peter Scheemakers Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger (10 January 1691 – 12 September 1781) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicism, classici ...

Vicars of Bray

''See'' The Vicar of Bray for the satirical description, or '' The Vicar of Bray (song)'' for the English folk song. *Reinbald 1081 *Roger 1288 *Henry de Chilbalton 1301 *Roger de Crossby 1327 *William Scherreve 1368–75 *John Dray 1382 *Thomas Gernon 1382–96 *William Dyer 1396–1440 *Robert Manfelde 1440–43 *Thomas Pashe 1443–44 *Thomas Topclyf 1444 *Thomas Luyde 1444–54 *William Morris 1454–79 *Thomas Phillippis 1479–97 *John Perkwyn 1497 *John Halle 1504 *Richard Watts 1504–20 *John Mogeryge 1521–23 * Simon Symonds 1523–47 *William Stafferton 1548–55 *Alexander Barlo 1556 * Simon Aleyn 1557–65 *Henry Cranshawe 1565 *David Tuke 1589–99 *Edward Cranceshaw 1599 *Edward Boughton 1621–40 *Anthony Faringdon 1640–42 * Hezekiah Woodward 1649–60 *Edward Boughton 1660 *Edward Fulham 1660–62 *Francis Carswell 1665–1709 *Thomas Brown 1709–59 *George Berkeley 1759–69 *Hon George Hamilton 1769–87 *Edward Townshend 1787–1822 *Walter Levett 1822–25 *George Legge 1825–26 *Walter Levett 1826–53 *James Austen Leigh 1853–74 *William Brassey Hole 1874–87 *Charles Raymond 1887–1915 *William Riddelsdell 1915–31 *Arthur Jones 1931–45 *Edward Lowman 1945–58 *Sidney Doran 1958–77 *Neil Howells 1977–84 *George Repath 1985–2007 *Richard Cowles 2008

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bray Church of England church buildings in Berkshire Grade II* listed churches in Berkshire St Michael's Church