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The church of the Holy Rood in Sparsholt consists of a chancel 52 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft. 6 in., nave 55 ft. 3 in. by 22 ft. 9 in., north vestry, south transept 20 ft. by 26 ft., west tower 10 ft. 9 in. by 12 ft. 2 in., and north porch. All the measurements are internal.

The nave dates from the close of the 12th century, and the lower part of the west tower probably belongs to the same period. The upper part was added or rebuilt towards the end of the 13th century. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century and north and south transepts added at the same time. The western part of the nave was also reconstructed. The north vestry was added in the 15th century and early in the 16th century the nave walls were heightened. At some subsequent period the north transept was destroyed and the arch built up, and the church has been repaired in modern times and the north porch added.

The chancel is finished with a parapet with flowing tracery and good carved gargoyles at intervals. The large 14th-century east window is of five lights with restored net tracery. At the east end of the north wall is a pointed doorway to the vestry and further west two tall pointed windows of the 14th century, each of two lights with a quatrefoil in the head and a moulded rear arch. Below the first of these is a pointed priest's doorway and below the second a squint to the destroyed north transept. In the south wall are three 14th-century windows uniform with those on the north. Below the first are a piscina and triple sedilia, all with trefoiled heads, feathered and finialled labels and crocketed pinnacles between them; the circular shafts between the sedilia are free and have moulded capitals and bases. Below the third window is a squint to the south transept with a shouldered head. The 14th-century chancel arch is of two chamfered orders. The high-pitched roof is original, with queen-posts and tie-beams, the latter having curved braces and traceried filling to the spandrels. They spring from stone corbels carved with the evangelistic symbols. Behind the altar is an early 16th-century stone reredos, consisting of three elliptical-headed panels with a moulded square-headed label over them.

The nave has in the north wall a blocked 14thcentury arch of two chamfered orders formerly opening into the north transept. In the filling is a two-light window made up of 14th-century material. Further west is the fine late 12th-century north doorway of two semicircular orders with a moulded label with large beak-head stops. The inner order is moulded and partly covered by a cusped and foliated enrichment; the jambs have attached shafts with voluted angles to the inner order and free shafts with good foliage capitals to the outer, all with square abaci. The plain oak door retains the old scrolled iron-work. High above this doorway is an early 16th-century clearstory window of three lights with a square head, and further west, at a lower level, is a two-light 14th-century window similar to those in the chancel, with restored tracery. In the south wall is a wide pointed arch of 14th-century date and two continuous chamfered orders opening into the south transept. The blocked south doorway is of the same date as the north, and of two moulded semicircular orders, the outer resting on shafts with foliage capitals and the inner with a roll on the jambs. Above it is a clearstory window similar to but longer than that on the north. Further west are two 14th-century windows similar to that on the north and having a moulded string-course at the internal sill-course, repeated also on the opposite wall. Externally the nave has a plain moulded parapet. The 15thcentury roof is low-pitched with curved and moulded principals with traceried spandrels and moulded ridge and purlins.

The 14th-century south transept has a two-light east window with a pointed head and a trefoil-headed piscina at the south end of the east wall. The south window is of four lights with net tracery. In the west wall is a two-light window similar to that on the east, and below it is a modern doorway. The roof, probably original, is of the trussed rafter type with one moulded tie-beam. The vestry on the north of the chancel has a large two-light 16thcentury east window with traces of an earlier window above it. In the west wall is a pointed doorway. It has a plastered roof and has been much cut about and altered. The north porch is of 18th or early 19th-century date with a keyed outer arch.

The west tower is of three stages and has a narrow pointed tower arch of the 14th century of two orders on the east and three on the west face. The west doorway is modern, and above it is an early 16thcentury two-light window. In the north and south walls are square-headed loops, but the inner openings are round-headed and are apparently those of early windows. The second stage has plain square-headed windows on the north and south and the bell-chamber is lighted by two-light windows of late 13th-century date, with quatrefoils in the heads. The tower has diagonal buttresses and is finished with a shingled broach spire.

The church is particularly rich in brasses and monuments; the former are in the chancel and include a good figure of William de Herleston, a priest of c. 1410, in the head of a floreated cross, most of which is gone, with a fragmentary marginal inscription and two coats of arms, a cross with a bend indented in the quarter. To the north is a small female figure of c. 1520 and the upper part of a male figure of about the same date with two sons below. To the south is a figure in civilian dress commemorating John Fettiplace (1602) with three coats of arms: Fettiplace impaling Braybrooke of Abingdon, Fettiplace impaling an unidentified coat which is repeated not impaled. There are also brass inscriptions to Thomas Todhunter, 1627, John Williamson, 1633, Richard Edmondson, 1674, and Nicholas Cook, 1603, all vicars of the parish. In the north wall of the chancel between the two doors is a 14th-century tomb recess with a cusped cinquefoiled arch, the points of which have carved heads or foliage bosses; the spandrels also have foliage and the ogee label has a final and rich crocketing and crocketed pinnacles at the sides. Opposite it in the south wall is a similar recess, the points of the cusping being all finished with heads; under this is a panelled altar tomb, the six panels each having a blank shield. On the tomb is a cross-legged recumbent effigy of about 1300 to 1310 with two angels at the head and a lion at the feet; there is no shield and the effigy is of freestone. In the centre of the chancel is a slab with a floreated cross in low relief much defaced. On the north wall of the nave is a handsome freestone monument to John Pleydell (1591) and Bridget his wife (1623) with Doric side pilasters, a rich cresting and cherubim, dragons, &c., as ornaments; the shield above bears the arms of Pleydell impaling Barker of Hurst. On the east wall of the south transept is an early 17th-century tablet with Ionic side pilasters to Sir George Hyde of Kingston Lisle and Katherine his wife, daughter of Sir Humphrey Ferrers. The two shields bear the arms of Hyde and Hyde quartering Ferrers of Tamworth. In the south transept wall are two tomb recesses of the beginning of the 14th century and exactly uniform; they are similar to those in the chancel and have feathered ogee labels and heads to the points of the cusping. Under the eastern is an altar tomb with nine armed weepers, each under a shallow ogee canopy, and on it is a well-carved oak effigy of a lady in a long mantle and wimple with two figures at the head and two dogs at the feet. Under the western recess is a plain altar tomb with a moulded cornice supporting another oak effigy of a widow or vowess with her feet on a dog, and two figures at the head. Near by on a modern base is an armed effigy of oak of about 1390 in a camail; the feet rest on a lion and the head on a helmet surmounted by a coronet and crest resembling a mushroom.

The font has a plain cylindrical bowl of the 12th or 13th century. Across the arch of the south transept is an oak screen, of which the base and beam are modern, but the arcading is of the 14th century with cinquefoiled arches and shafts with moulded capitals, bands and bases. The chancel screen is modern, but in the chancel is a bench with panelled ends, of early 16th-century date, and an old desk. Some old glass remains in the nave windows. In that under the north transept arch is a female head of the 15th century, and in the clearstory window on this side is some 14th-century glass in the centre light and some of the 15th century in the west light with a kneeling figure; in the east light are fragments of an inscription. In the middle window on the south of the nave is a 14th-century majesty in the head.

There are four bells: the treble is a pre-Reformation bell dedicated to St. Catherine, the second and third are of 1578, and the tenor is of 1603.

The plate consists of a chalice and paten with date letter 1613(?).

The registers begin in 1558.

In the churchyard north of the church is the base and part of the shaft of a stone cross

Historical information about the Church of the Holy Rood is provided by 'Parishes: Stanford in the Vale', in A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4, ed. William Page and P H Ditchfield (London, 1924), pp. 478-485. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol4/pp478-485 [accessed 8 March 2023].

The Church of the Holy Rood is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF THE HOLY ROOD, Sparsholt - 1048702 | Historic England.

For more information about the Church of the Holy Rood see Parishes: Sparsholt | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).