Kellys_1919_0018.jpg

READING DIRECTORY— 1919.

9

sisting of chancel, nave of five bays, vestry, transepts, aisles and an
eastern bell-cote oontaining <5ne b e ll: there are 550 sittings, all free.
The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £300, from the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, in the gift of 'the vicar of St. Giles’, Reading, and held
since 1912 by the Rev. Francis James H ow ard M .A . of K eble College,
Oxford.'
S t . M a r y ’ s, Castle street,' a structure of brick, situated on the
north side of Castle street, and erected in 1798 as a dissenting chapel
by seceders from the church of St. Giles, was afterwards conveyed to
the Church of England and reopened in 1836, with various alterations,
including the erection of a portico with five Corinthian columns support­
ing a pediment and a rectangular pedimented bell tower above_ it, con­
taining one bell, and w ill now seat 1,000 persons. The living is a
perpetual curacy, net yearly value about £240, in the gift of trustees,
and held since 1895 by the Rev. James Consterdine M .A . of Lincoln
College, Oxford.

The ecclesiastical parish of TmEHtmsT S t . G e o r g e was formed from the
parish of Tilehurst by Order in Council 29th June, 1882, and incorporated
in the borough of Reading Mich. 1887: the church, in St. George s road,
west of the barracks, erected at a cost of £4,000, is a structure of red
brick in the E arly English style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle and
a turret containing one b e ll: there is an inscribed brass to M ajor-General
A. G. Huyshe C .B . commanding 1st Battalion Princess Charlotte’6 Royal
Berkshire Regiment, w ho died 6th Aug. 1886: the west window is filled
with stained glass, erected by M ajor Turner, of the Royal Berkshire
Regiment, in memory of his wife ; and in 1892 two stained windows were
inserted in the north aisle by officers of the 1st Battalion Royal Berkshire
Regiment, to M a jor F. B . R. Hemphill, who was killed b y an accident at
Malta whilst playing polo, June 8th, 1891: there are other memorial
windows to Mrs. W a lter H arper and to officers and men of the 2nd
Battalion Berkshire R egim en t: the chancel was added in 1893 at the
cost of Sir W alter and Lady Palm er j a handsome wrought iron chancel
screen with gates was erected by the late vicar and his wife in memory
of Lieut. Robert A . Stewart R .H .A . who died at Um balla, India,
January 22, 1889; there is also a brass to P rivate Charles Andrews,
d. March 22, 1889, another to Private H arry Cripps, who died in South
Africa, 1901, and to Captain Swinton, 1905: brasses have also recently
been placed in the church to the memory of those members of the 3rd
Battalion of the Berkshire Regiment who fell in South A fr ic a : a twolight window in the north aisle has been filled w ith stained glass b y
M ajor-General Stewart, also in memoiy of those who died in that
w a r ; two stained glass panels have been placed in the chancel apse to the
memory of M iss V iv ia n : there is also a fine altar cross to the memory
of A lbert R y d e r: the old colours of the Berkshire R egim ent.'were
placed here in 1908: this is the m ilitary church for the regiments
quartered here: there are sittings for 433 persons. The register dates
from the year 1881. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £300, ■
with residence, in the gift o f the Bishop of Oxford, and held since 1897
by the Rev. W a lte r H ugo H arper M .A . of University College, Oxford.
The church o f S t. M a r k , in the Kensington road, is a district church,
and has 500 sittings ; the Rev. Ernest H en ry Stenning M .A . o f Selwyn
College, Cambridge, iB priest in charge.
The church of S t. P e t e r , in the ecclesiastical parish of Earlov, was
consecrated Sept. 21st, 1844; it is an edifice of brick in the Earlv