St Mary Magdalene's Church, Boveney

St Mary Magdalene's Church, Boveney
St Mary Magdalene's Church, Boveney, from the southeast
St Mary Magdalene's Church, Boveney Location in Buckinghamshire
Coordinates: 51°29′25″N 0°38′51″W / 51.4903°N 0.6474°W / 51.4903; -0.6474
OS grid reference	SU 940 776
Location	Boveney, Buckinghamshire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Friends of Friendless Churches
History
Dedication	Mary Magdalene
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	23 September 1955
Architectural type	Church
Groundbreaking	12th century
Completed	15th century
Specifications
Materials	Flint and chalk rubble, with ashlar dressings

St Mary Magdalene's Church is a redundant Anglican church standing close to the river on the north bank of the Thames, near the village of Boveney, Buckinghamshire, England. It is about 3 kilometres (2 mi) to the west of Eton College. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.

A church has been on the site since before the Norman conquest, but the fabric of the present church dates from the 12th century. Windows and the tower were added in the 15th century. The church was built to serve the bargemen working on the River Thames; there was a quay alongside the church but there are now no remains of this. It was a chapel of ease to St Peter's Church, Burnham. An attempt to make it into a separate parish in 1737 failed because sufficient endowment could not be raised. Probably in the middle of the 19th century, a dado of bricks was added to the exterior in an attempt to keep out damp, and in 1897 the window tracery was replaced.

St Mary's in constructed in flint and chalk rubble, with ashlar dressings. Small fragments of flint have been inserted in the mortar; this process is partly functional and partly decorative, and is known as galletting. The tower is weatherboarded; it stands on a timber framework, which itself stands on the ground. The door is in the south wall. High in the west wall is a small narrow lancet window that probably dates from the 12th century. Inside the church, some of the original 15th-century pews are still present. Other fittings date from the 18th and 19th centuries. Contained in a glass-fronted box on the north wall of the church are fragments of painted and gilded alabaster sculptures, possibly dating from the 15th century; these depict biblical themes. There is a ring of three bells. The largest of these dates from about 1536 and was cast at the foundry in Reading; the other two bells were cast in 1631 and 1636 by Ellis I. Knight.