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St. Mary's Church in Uffington is a large cruciform building of stone and clunch, but the greater part of the walling is covered externally with rough-cast. With the exception of one window, the upper part of the tower, and some 17th-century restoration, it belongs entirely to the first half of the 13th century, though a small round-headed recess on the south side of the chancel may be a fragment of an earlier building. No other traces of 12th-century work, however, remain, the church having been rebuilt anew from the foundation. The building consists of a chancel 38 ft. by 19 ft., central tower 16 ft. square, north and south transepts each 26 ft. by 19 ft. with 'chapels' or altar recesses on the east side, aisleless nave 51 ft. by 23 ft. 6 in., and south porch with chamber over 12 ft. by 9 ft. 6 in., all these measurements being internal. The total internal length is 113 ft. 6 in., and the breadth across the transepts 76 ft. 6 in., and the walls are 3 ft. thick. The north transept has two eastern 'chapels' and the south transept one, with a doorway and porch at the south end of the east wall. There was formerly a sacristy about 10 ft. square on the north side of the chancel, but this has disappeared, though the doorway and the roof weathering remain. The tower is octagonal above the roof and was originally surmounted by a stone spire.

No alteration has taken place in the plan with the exception of the destruction of the sacristy, and restoration has effected less damage to the fabric than is sometimes the case. A new window was inserted in the south-west corner of the chancel in the 14th century, and after the Reformation the church appears to have been allowed to fall into a state of ruin. It was repaired in 1678. but the extent of the work then done cannot be precisely stated, though the Churchwardens' Accounts record various payments during the period 1677–9, among them £25 'for the end wall of the church pulling it down and setting it up.' The old high-pitched roof of the nave seems then to have been taken down and a new flat leaded roof erected, the upper part of the nave windows being altered during the process. Mention is made of 'setting up the battlements,' paving 'the Ile called S. John Baptist's Ile' (the south transept), and for whiting and plastering the church. The 'steeple' was repaired in 1704 and pointed in 1725, in which year the aisles, or transepts, were again plastered. On 2 December 1740 the spire was 'beat down by a tempest,' but no record remains of the extent of the damage done. It seems clear, however, that the upper stage of the tower was so badly damaged as to necessitate its rebuilding, and this was carried out in 1742. The next extensive reparation was in 1812–14, when the leaded roof of the nave was replaced by the present high-pitched slated one, a west gallery erected, and the seats repaired. The chancel and transepts were restored in 1851 by G. E. Street, and the west gallery was probably removed at that period. Repairs have been carried out from time to time, the last being in 1912, but the church has undergone no systematic restoration and is the more interesting on that account. The roofs are caved and are all covered with old stone slates. The architectural details of the building are exceedingly good, and remains of mediaeval ritual arrangements are numerous.

The chancel is divided into three bays. Each bay was lighted by two original lancets on either side, except the middle bay on the north, which was occupied by the sacristy, where there are two blank lancets forming an arcade. The 14th-century window, which has reticulated tracery, is on the south side of the west bay. The east window consists of a triplet of lancets, the middle light higher than the others. All the lancets have moulded heads and labels springing from shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The capitals of the two middle shafts of the east window are further enriched with foliage. The eastern bay, which forms the sanctuary, is divided from the rest of the chancel by a pointed arch of three chamfered orders springing from wall shafts of three roll mouldings resting on corbels. The shafts have moulded capitals, and the corbels are carved with the head of a king on the north side and a lady on the south. The arch itself above the springing dates only from 1852. The sanctuary was originally vaulted, or intended so to be, the springers of the ribs remaining in the north-east and south-east angles carried on corbelled angle shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The spring of the vault also remains on the east face of the transverse arch, and similar wall shafts between the second and third bays, the corbels of which are carved with small animals' heads. In the north-west and south-west angles of the west bay are shafts similar to those at the east end, but the vaulting, if intended, seems never to have been begun.

The sedilia consist of three seats with moulded trefoil arches springing from detached shafts. The piscina is under a fourth arch of similar detail, the whole forming a very beautiful and unrestored composition. The earlier round-headed recess is further east, and there is a second piscina with a trefoil head in the middle bay to the east of the priest's doorway. This doorway has a pointed arch of two orders, the outer order with a roll moulding between two hollows springing from slender angle shafts with carved capitals, and the inner with a continuous chamfer. In front of the doorway is a shallow gabled porch projecting 14 in. The north doorway to the sacristy has a plain chamfered arch, but is now built up. The chancel roof dates from 1851 and the carved oak reredos from 1902. Part of the lower panelling of the 15th-century rood screen remains on the north side of the opening against the jamb of the chancel arch. The chancel fittings are modern.

The tower is of three stages above the eaves of the roofs, the lower square stage weathering back at the angles with two octagonal stages above and terminating in an embattled parapet with crocketed angle pinnacles. On each side of the ground stage are pointed arches of three hollow-chamfered orders, the inner springing from half-round shafts or responds with chamfered bases and moulded capitals, the upper member of which continued forms the impost of the outer orders. In the eastern angles are quarter-round shafts with chamfered bases and moulded capitals from which the outer orders of the north, south and east arches spring. There is a plaster ceiling. Above the roofs the walls of the tower are stripped of roughcast, the older lower stage being of rubble with ashlar dressings. In the lower octagonal stage are four plain louvred lancets, one on each of the cardinal sides, and in the later stage above, which is of dressed stone, four plain pointed openings similarly placed. There is a projecting polygonal newel staircase in the north-west angle carried across the angle of the nave and north transept.

The transepts are lighted by double or triple lancets in the end and west walls with details similar to those in the side windows of the chancel. The two altar recesses in the north transept differ in size, one being 10 ft. 3 in. long, and the other 7 ft. 6 in., the depth in each case from the face of the wall being 5 ft. 6 in. They are separated from the transept by pointed arches of two moulded orders with hood moulds springing from large half-round shafts, or responds, and smaller angle shafts, all with moulded capitals, but only the responds and middle shafts supporting the labels have moulded bases. Externally the 'chapels' have gabled stone roofs and the windows consist of three lights, the heads of which follow the rake of the gable. The jambs and mullions are moulded on both sides and there is a small singlelight window at the north end. The piscinae are in the usual position on the south side of each recess and have moulded trefoil heads. In the north wall of the transept is a large square aumbry divided by a stone shelf and upright into four compartments and rebated for a door, the hinges of which partly remain. Below it is a fine old muniment chest. At the south end of the west wall is a shouldered doorway to the newel stair, now built up. The recess in the south transept is 8 ft. long by 6 ft. in depth, but is otherwise similar to those on the north, except that the hood mould of the arch terminates in a mask, and a large dog-tooth ornament. The mouldings of the piscinae are modern. The south-east doorway stands within a shallow gabled porch, the moulded outer arch of which is almost semicircular and springs from angle shafts with moulded capitals set within moulded jambs. In the gable is a deeply-recessed quatrefoil, the mouldings of which have been restored, and the roof is covered with stone slabs. The doorway is pointed and of two moulded orders, the outer carried on angle shafts with moulded capitals and bases, and the inner continuous. The porch projects 3 ft.

The nave has a triplet of lancets at the west and double lancets at the eastern end of the north and south walls; the lights in the latter are separated by a mullion and originally may have been set within a containing arch. When the 17th-century roof was erected the heads were removed and the windows taken up to the wall-plate, where they now finish with a square head below the eaves. The west wall, if entirely taken down, appears to have been rebuilt with the old materials, but the windows were treated in a somewhat similar manner, the lancet heads being replaced by flat segmental arches at a level with the wall-plate with flat lintels inside. In the north and south windows the internal angle shafts have been lengthened and the capitals raised, but in the west window the capitals have gone. The pointed north doorway is now built up. Above the blocked north door is a large sexfoil window inclosed within a moulded circle, a bold and effective piece of work. The south doorway is of two richly moulded orders, the outer carried on angle shafts with moulded bases and bold conventional foliage in the capitals, and the inner order is continuous. The door is ancient and preserves its original ironwork, which is a good example of the work of the period. The porch is vaulted, the ribs springing from angle shafts with moulded capitals and bases and the outer arch consists of two moulded orders, both springing from shafts with carved capitals and moulded bases, below a moulded label. The gable has a moulded stone coping with two lizard-like animals in the apex, but the walls are rough-casted. Above the doorway is a small shouldered window to the porch chamber with moulded head and jambs, and another, plainer in detail, opens to the nave. Access to the chamber was by a projecting newel stairway in the north-west corner opening from the nave by a shouldered doorway, but the position of the steps was altered when the gallery was erected, an entrance, since built up, being made from the porch. The porch buttresses terminate in gablets and have trefoiled niches on either side of the entrance with pedestals for statues. The east and west walls are blank. In the porch is preserved the lid of a stone coffin bearing a foliated cross. It was found in the churchyard in 1913.

On the exterior of the building are eleven circular moulded panels for metal consecration crosses, the twelfth having probably been on the north wall of the destroyed sacristy. The positions of those remaining are: three below the east window, three at the west end of the nave, one on the south wall of the chancel, one on the north, and one on the south side of the nave, and one on each of the end walls of the transepts. The rivet holes still remain in each panel, the crosses having probably been of bronze or copper. 

The font, pulpit and seating are all modern, but there are some late 15th-century oak benches with carved ends in the north transept, partly made up from pieces of the rood screen.

In the west wall of the south transept is a recessed Jacobean tomb, with painted recumbent figure below a semicircular canopy, to John Saunders of Woolstone, 'justice of Peace and well experienced in ye comon lawes of England,' who died in 1638. The monument, which was erected by his wife, bears also an older brass plate, formerly in the floor of the nave, recording the burial of John Saunders (d. 1599) and Anne his wife. There is also a mural monument in the south transept, erected in 1703, to the Rev. Robert Green, 'minister of this parish 42 years,' who died in 1699. Below the end window of the north transept is a good Renaissance monument with Corinthian columns, entablature and shield of arms to Edward Archer (d. 1603), and a brass plate in the floor of the nave records the burial of Thomas Saunders (d. 1644). The blue stone slab in which the plate is set bears the arms of Saunders with helm, crest and mantling, and there are other inscribed stones in the nave to members of the Saunders and Lockey families. The transepts contain many 18th and early 19th-century tablets. 

The organ stands in the north transept.

Five bells were recast in 1657, but the present ring of five are all of later date. The oldest, the tenor, was cast by Thomas Rudhall in 1762, the fourth by R. Wells of Aldbourne in 1770, and the treble by James Wells in 1803; the second (1886) and third (1867) are by Mears & Stainbank. The clock dates from 1910. Another clock of 1613 is preserved in the church.

The silver plate consists of a cup of 1583, with the usual band of leafwork and the maker's mark R.W. within a shield, and a paten of 1879 inscribed, 'In pious memory of Catharine E. Poole 1880.' There are also a plated cup and salver, a pewter flagon inscribed 'C.G., O.L. 1711,' and a pewter salver inscribed 'Tho. Thatcher & Rich. Gerring Churchwardens 1790.'

The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms 1654 to 1737, with irregular entries from 1742 to 1761, marriages 1663 to 1701, and burials 1654 to 1701; (ii) burials 1678 to 1744 and in 1748, marriages 1701 to 1737; (iii) baptisms 1760 to 1783, burials 1760 to 1782; (iv) marriages 1754 to 1812; (v) baptisms 1783 to 1812; (vi) burials 1783 to 1812.

The Churchwardens' Accounts begin in 1655 and are continuous.

Historical information about St. Mary's Church is provided by 'Parishes: Uffington', in A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4, ed. William Page and P H Ditchfield (London, 1924), pp. 543-551. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol4/pp543-551 [accessed 9 March 2023].

St. Mary's Church is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST MARY, Uffington - 1198865 | Historic England.

For more information about St. Mary's Church see Parishes: Uffington | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).