St Mary's Church, Castle Street, Reading

{{For|the Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin in Reading|Reading Minster}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}

{{Infobox church

| name = St Mary's Church, Castle Street

| image = St Mary, Reading - geograph.org.uk - 2769086.jpg

| imagesize =

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| caption = St Mary's Church, Castle Street

| pushpin map = United Kingdom Reading Central

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| pushpin mapsize = 250

| map caption = Location within Reading Town Centre

| coordinates = {{coord|51|27|13.59|N|0|58|29.32|W|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline,title}}

| location = Reading

| country = England

| denomination = Church of England (Continuing)

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| founded date = 1798

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| dedication = none{{Cite web |title=About Us - St Mary's Castle Street |url=https://www.stmaryscastlestreet.org.uk/aboutus.htm |access-date=2024-03-17 |website=www.stmaryscastlestreet.org.uk}}

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| functional status = Active

| heritage designation = Grade II*

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| style = Corinthian

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| archdeaconry = N/A

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St Mary's Church, Castle Street is an independent church within the Continuing Anglican movement. It is located in the town centre of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and is a few yards from the similarly named, but much older Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin.

In 1798, there was a disagreement between the Bishop and the congregation of St Giles' Church in nearby Southampton Street. Many of the congregation left and founded a new chapel in Castle Street, on the site of Reading's old gaol. This chapel eventually became the Church of St Mary, Castle Street.{{cite web | url = http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radstock/rht/themes/religion/stmarycastle.html | title = St Mary's Castle Street | publisher = Reading History Trail | access-date = 2007-11-27 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071109173233/http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radstock/rht/themes/religion/stmarycastle.html | archive-date = 2007-11-09 }}

The church is a Grade II* listed building.{{NHLE |num=1113427 |desc=Church of St Mary |grade=II* |accessdate=21 August 2014}} The original 1798 building was a simple Georgian building, but in 1840 the present hexastyle portico in Corinthian style was added by local architect and builder Henry Briant. The frontage is rendered in stucco while the capitals of the portico are probably formed of Coade stone.{{cite web | url = https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1113427 | title = Images of England – Church of St Mary, Castle Street, Reading | publisher = English Heritage | accessdate = 2007-11-27}}

The church has a late-18th-century gallery in five bays with marbled Doric ground floor and Ionic gallery columns. There is a modillion cornice to the coved central ceiling and a small projecting chancel with a bay for the mid-19th-century organ. The instrument, by Vowles of Bristol, is dated 1870, and was moved to St Mary's from Bristol in 1987. The church used to be lit by two mid-19th-century cast iron chandeliers.

Today the church forms part of the Church of England (Continuing), a small group of four congregations outside the Church of England, self-identified on their website as "evangelical, reformed, Anglican".{{cite web|url=http://www.cofec.org/congregations.htm |title=Congregations |publisher=Church of England (Continuing) |access-date=2012-01-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509183740/http://www.cofec.org/congregations.htm |archive-date=2012-05-09 }}