Church Tour

Bisham Church tour with Sheila, our local historian.

£5 pp includes Tea & biscuits.

Book via Bisham Church Friends Website 

Bisham Church Tour Description (2 hour session).

Visitors are surprised by size of the building as they enter, it is significantly larger than a

normal village parish church. The tour starts at Domesday and highlights the royal

connections of the Bisham estate (including Temple Mill) and its owners. Lifesize

monuments, brasses, plaques and stained glass all have a story to tell, weaving the

fascinating story of this idyllic estate which was more influential than nearby Marlow. The

tour starts with the C12 clunch chalk Norman Tower, through Lady Hoby’s burial chapel and

Benjamin Ferrys remodelling, to the C19 th north aisle, gifted by the Williams family, which

completed the major development of the building.

The tour involves some moving round to sit in 3 places in the church and takes one and a

half hours, followed by questions over fresh brewed tea and coffee and biscuits. There is a

fully accessible WC in the church.

Sheila Featherstone-Clark is the Bisham historian. I tell stories to share the fascinating

history of Bisham Village and the families who lived in this special place, which was

essentially a feudal estate until 1965.  I have lived in Bisham for over 30 years and

my research is based on a range of sources, conducted over some years since I stopped full

time teaching.  Sheila.bishamhistory@gmail.com

Visitor feedback

• I am just writing to say how much I enjoyed the church tour and talk last Saturday. I had never been inside Bisham Church before and found Sheila’s talk informative, entertaining and accessible to someone with zero knowledge of the history of the church. I particularly enjoyed looking at the monuments and hearing the poignant stories of the families associated with them. An added bonus for me as someone with a hearing impairment was discovering that you have an excellent loop system enabling me to hear every word. It might be worth mentioning this on your events page so that others with hearing impairment might be encouraged to attend. (October 23)
• Good idea to move around the church so we were not sitting all the time. (Oct 23)
• A fascinating tour. I have lived in Marlow most of my lie and have only visited once before. I will return. The warmth of welcome was outstanding. Thank you. (June 23)
• A most illuminating tour from Seila who crammed so much into such a sort time. She revealed a whole host of fascinating facts, anecdotes and stories. (June 23)
• Super interesting and most informative…who knew…Sheila did.. Fabulous. Thank you. (April 23)
• Really enjoyed the afternoon. So informative and interesting. Sheila fantastic sharing her knowledge. Thank you (April 23)
• Fantastic tour of the church and its history, I can’t think of anything to improve. (March 2023)