Sulhamstead Bannister / Silhamsted / Silhamstede Banastre / Sulhamstead Banister / Sullamsted Bannester

No entry for Sulhamstead Banister found in the Domesday survey. The re-built church is described in Parker (Berkshire, part 2, 1849) as a "Modern imitation of E.E.", without mention of its contents. A font here is described in 'Church notes...' (1887) in the context of some "notes [that] were taken between 1835 and 1840": "A modern church in bad taste, on the lines of the old one. The font may be Decorated, but is plastered." The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 3, 1923) notes: "The advowson of the church was held by the Bannister family, and granted as the daughter church of Aldermaston by John Bannister [13th century] to the alien priory of Monk Sherborne, a cell of the abbey of St. Vigor at Cerisy in Normandy. [...] The church of St. Michael [...] was almost entirely rebuilt about 1815 [...] The font is a curiously rude round one of plastered brick." [NB: we have no information on the medieval font here]. The Berkshire Family History Society entry for Sulhamstead Bannister [www.berksfhs.org.uk/cms/Berkshire-Churches/sulhamstead-bannister.html] [accessed 30 April 2015] informs: "The ancient church of St Michael at Sulhamstead Bannister Upper End (SU638684) was almost entirely rebuilt in 1819. In 1914 the church was again rebuilt only to be demolished in 1966 when the parish was united with Sulhamstead Abbots. All that remains today is the porch standing among the graves and hidden from view of the road by a large tree."