William Fynderne (died 1444) and his wife which at long is the largest in old Berkshire. The church is a Grade I listed building. The west tower has a ring of eight bells. Until the 21st century it was a ring of six. Ellis I Knight of Reading, Berkshire cast the tenor bell in 1632 and the fourth and fifth bells in 1639. Pack and Chapman of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the second bell in 1770. George Mears & Co of the same foundry cast the treble bell in 1865, and Mears and Stainbank of Whitechapel recast the third bell in 1907. Then in 2005 the 1865 treble bell was removed and the Whitechapel foundry cast a new treble, second and third bells to increase the ring to eight. St Mary's parish is part of the Ridgeway Benefice, along with the parishes of Kingston Lisle, Letcombe Bassett, Letcombe Regis, Sparsholt and West Challow. Methodist Childrey Methodist church opened in 1849 as a Wesleyan chapel. There was a separate Primitive Methodist chapel until the Methodist Union in 1932. The front of the chapel building collapsed in 1986. A new building was opened in 1994. Economic and social history Clockmaker Samuel Aldworth, a yeoman of Childrey, was apprenticed to the notable clockmaker John Knibb of Oxford in 1673. After his seven-year apprenticeship he remained in his master's service until 1689, when he was made a freeman of the City of Oxford and established his own clockmaking business in the city. In 1697 Knibb's elder brother, the distinguished clock and watchmaker Joseph Knibb, sold his business in London and retired to Hanslope in Buckinghamshire. Aldworth moved to London in his place and became a brother of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. In 1703 Aldworth was granted a licence to marry Elizabeth Knibb of Collingtree, Northamptonshire. In later life Aldworth retired to Childrey, where he continued his work. One longcase clock dated 1725 is signed Sam Aldworth at Childrey From London. Aldworth died in about 1730. Canal Between 1805 and 1807 the section of the Wilts & Berks Canal between Longcot and Challow was completed. It passes through the parish about north of the village. Childrey had a wharf on the canal, about north of the village. Traffic on the canal had virtually ceased by 1901 and the route was formally abandoned in 1914. The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is currently restoring