St Andrew
Boxford, Berkshire
A truly ancient parish church in a picturesque setting on the River Lambourn.
Prepare yourself for surprises when you go into this church, from the outside nothing looks untoward, except that the tower is clearly Saxon, and the whole of the rest of the building is obviously very much later.
Wickham, Berkshire
In fact, the body of the church was built in the 1840s by architect Benjamin Ferrey.
It has a nave and north aisle, both with very high, dark roofs. And it is in the dimness of these roofs that the surprises lurk: there are carved angels in the nave, and eight enormous elephant heads in the aisle. They are here because the man paying for the new church, William Nicholson, saw four papier mache elephant heads at an exhibition in Paris, thought they would look good in the church, and had four more specially made to go with them.
The decor in the rest of the church is exuberant, but it's the elephants that stay in the memory.