St Andrew's Church

When you reach Sonning (“Sunna’s inga”, literally Sunna's People”, another Anglo-Saxon settlement) take the path right, after the iron railings, through to the churchyard.

Look out for flint on this path.

St. Andrew’s Church, Sonning, was founded in the 7th century. Significant parts of the present church date from 1310 and a major reconstruction took place in 1350, to celebrate deliverance from the Black Death.

This involved much of the rest of the church, including the tower.

Sonning church is mostly built of flint, probably from local pits whose scars can now be seen but softened by ivy overgrowth, in the Blue Coat School woods adjacent to Sonning Lock.

Because it is very difficult to build corners and window mullions with flint, these features were built of stone (shelly oolitic limestone of Middle Jurassic age, possibly from Taynton north-west of Oxford).

Yew

Look closely at the flint in the church walls and you will see some of the pieces have holes in them. These are from fossils which were embedded in the flint when it was formed and have since fallen out.

You'll also see Yew Trees in the churchyard.

Yew was always present in churchyards in medieval times to provide the wood to make bows and arrows.

MANY THANKS TO PROFESSOR BRUCE SELLWOOD OF READING UNIVERSITY FOR ALL OF HIS HELP WITH THIS WALK