Standing two metres tall and just over a metre wide, it is built up in layers of white and black marble, with free-standing columns, foliate scroll brackets, a painted hourglass set into a red and white marble cornice, and a covered bowl crowning the whole composition. The overall effect is more like a piece of furniture than a plaque, somewhere between a small altarpiece and an elaborate cabinet. The painted heraldry beneath the main tablet adds further visual complexity: a heater-shaped shield, the classic medieval form tapering to a pointed base, carries a divided coat of arms with cocks, a hand, deer's heads, a bend azure, and a crown on gules, with the motto VIGILATE ET ORATE, meaning "Watch and pray".

The memorial commemorates Abigail Handcock, who died on 21 November 1680 at the age of fifty-three. She was the daughter of the Reverend Thomas Stanley and the wife of William Handcock of Twyford, and the inscription records that together they had nine sons and seven daughters. The monument was erected by William after her death. The scale and craftsmanship of the piece are notable for the period and location, suggesting a family with the means and motivation to commission something conspicuously elaborate. The church building that now houses it is nineteenth century, meaning the memorial predates its current setting by roughly two hundred years; it was presumably moved here from an earlier place of worship on the same site or nearby. The crest above the arms shows a lion rampant holding a lozenge-shaped medallion bearing a cock, a detail that ties back neatly to the Handcock family identity, the cock appearing more than once across the heraldic scheme.