St Michael and St Mary Magdalene's Church, Easthampstead

St Michael and St Mary Magdalene’s stands on the edge of Bracknell in Berkshire, replacing a much older building first mentioned in 1159. The present church was rebuilt in the 19th century under Lady Caroline, Marchioness of Downshire and Revd. Osborne Gordon, using stone except for the lower tower. It has a tall brick tower, a wide nave, a south transept, a north aisle and a south porch, with the organ chamber and vestry grouped near the chancel. The church holds relics from its past: a 15th-century rood screen reused below the organ, a Jacobean pulpit panel dated 1631, and a plain octagonal font on a modern base. Among the monuments is a brass to Thomas Berwyk from 1443 and a marble slab to the poet Elijah Fenton with an epitaph by Alexander Pope. The east window, designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, shows the Last Judgment, while a 2013 porch window by Thomas Denny depicts Cynegils of Wessex’s baptism. Outside, the churchyard shelters over a hundred plant species and provides a refuge for wildlife. Bat and bird boxes have been added and wildflowers planted as part of the Living Churchyards project. A veteran yew near the south gate releases clouds of pollen each February, and stag beetles have been recorded on the lichen-covered tombstones.