St Bartholomew Yarnton Pt2

 

This week we return to St Bartholomew Yarnton to have a look around the onside of this wonderful old church. From the outside St Bartholomew looks interesting and often you find it is not the case inside. On this occasion I did wonder as I walked in but looking up the south aisle I could see it would be very interesting as as I walked around it became even more so. Get a coffee and join me

 The porch on the south side of the church, good sign the door is open

In the porch the door leading to the church

Around the sides of the porch is a freeze

Both sides showing though now painted

Inside you first view over the south aisle and an interesting arch to the right

 

 

The nave

Above the chancel arch the remnants of medieval wall art 

The view though the arch dominated by the present altar

with a beautiful modern altar covering

In the chancel with the altar table at the end in front of the east window

From the altar we look back the other way to the arch and present altar, for some reason I did not get a photo from behind the altar of the nave

The pulpit with floral display in front

from the pulpit I did take a shot of the nave an south aisle

 

And another into the chancel

When I first came in on looking right I notice the screened chapel

The other direction is also screened off for the bell pulling and a kitchen, it was locked

So into the chapel at the end of the south aisle. I took this with a wide angle lense

Which was also useful to get a shot of both tombs

The first on in white and black dates back to the 17th century

Sir Thomas Spencer stands with his daughters on the sides while I presume his wife & son stand either side

This one I found even more impressive

Sir William Spencer Knight and his wife

The tomb effigies are outstanding in colour. I might add underneath are two sons and five daughters kneeling facing each other

The coat of arms above

I noticed this bench and table in the centre no doubt for the mother and baby group that meet here

It is worth looking at closely with the churchwardens names on the end and handles

The other end is a give away being a hand byre for carrying the dead to the grave on. One of the better ones I've seen

This is one of the two fonts, one is original Norman

The other a Perpendicular Gothic one from about 1400 from St Michael at North gate in Oxford

I like the carvings around the outside

A chest tomb near the back of the church between aisles

I did think it was older but I could see the date was from the 1800's

Now there are some beautiful windows with stained glass inserts with the largest collection of early 17th century heraldic glass

both large and small lancet ones

The stained glass inserts really made me look twice

It dates from the 15th & 16th century's

Reminder of Charles I which was around Oxford for a while keeping away from Cromwell till his night march well more like running away march

Another Spence memorial

 

This is a bequest that makes interesting reading, I like how he remembered to have cakes given to the poor kids 

 

 

Small Statue of St Bartholomew 

 

ceiling in the Spencer chapel

The organ at the back of the church

Nearly forgot this roll of honour names who are all to familiar with me which always makes me wonder if they had been related to people I know

A last look at this beautiful old church

 

 I will leave you with this shot of a lancet window that has some 15th century stained glass in it.

Before I go Early this week the Church  Explorer Blog passed 200,000 page visits so I would like to thank every one who visits, follows or subscribes for looking.

Thank You

Till next time Have a peaceful weekend

St Bartholomew's Yarnton

 

 St Bartholomew's Yarnton has been on the edge of my lit of churches to visit for a while. it is one I knew of but did not get around to visit. I decided to go along while my son was having his treatment at the JR but after checking if it was open I found that on the morning in question it was in use by a mother and baby group. I left it till I could find a day to visit which came one Friday morning. The problem was after visiting I realised there is another church I need to visit a few miles away. Church Crawling is taxing.There is quite a bit of history I have copied from Wikipedia :-

"The Church of England parish church of Saint Bartholomew was in existence by 1161 as a chapel attached to Eynsham Abbey. The Norman building from that period was completely rebuilt in the 13th century in the Early English Gothic style. The Perpendicular Gothic windows in the nave were added much later, followed by the clerestory in about 1600. Sir Thomas Spencer added the Spencer chapel, also Perpendicular Gothic, in 1611. The chapel houses monuments including Sir William Spencer (died 1609), Sir Thomas Spencer, 3rd Baronet (died 1684) and Charlotte Spencer-Churchill (died 1850). The chapel's windows contain heraldic stained glass representing branches of the Spencer family and are the largest collection of early 17th century heraldic glass in Oxfordshire.^[ The remains of 15th century wall paintings including a Nativity are visible over the chancel arch. Above it are what may be remnants of a Massacre of the Innocents. Other paintings may survive under the current limewash, including what may be a large Saint Christopher over the north doorway.

Late in the 18th century Alderman William Fletcher of Oxford, who was born in Yarnton, gave St Bartholomew's six alabaster reliefs carved by a Nottingham sculptor in the 15th century and said to have been found during excavations near St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Four of the panels now form a reredos in the chancel. In the 1860s the other two were transferred to London: one to the British Museum and the other to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The windows of St Bartholomew's nave contain many examples of 15th and 16th century stained glass. A few of these were made for Yarnton, but most came from elsewhere and were given by William Fletcher between 1812 and 1816. St Bartholomew's has two baptismal fonts. Its original font is Norman, but William Fletcher added a second font, a Perpendicular Gothic one from about 1400, that was removed from St Michael at the North Gate parish church in Oxford.

St Bartholomew's bell tower was built in about 1611. One of its bells was cast in 1618 but William Taylor recast it in 1853, presumably at his Oxford foundry. Five more bells were cast in 1620 to complete the present ring of six: the tenor and one other by Henry I Knight of Reading, Berkshire but the treble and two other bells by another bell-founder, possibly Robert Atton of Buckingham. St Bartholomew's also has a Sanctus bell that William Yare of Reading cast in about 1611. St Bartholomew's had a 16th-century clock. In 1641 this was replaced with a new clock with a one-handed face. The new clock cost £5 18s 0d plus the scrap value of the old clock, and it took a whole week to install. Keeping the new clock running required frequent repairs, of which there are records from 1648, 1651, 1658, 1665, 1680, 1682, 1685, 1703, 1716 and 1730. The repair in 1703 was by the noted clockmaker John Knibb of Oxford.^"

 Looking along the path from inside the gate

^{Turning towards the east end and some of the churchyard}

Near the porch a Preaching cross pillar can be seen

 

The carvings on it eroded through time

The porch with door open, a good sign

The east end seen from the road

 

 

Bell tower

 

 

From the north west 

 

North Aisle

 

Tower from the west end

 

Looking west along the north side, there are no graves along here that I could see

 

Old north door now with gates in front

 

The date plaque tells you the age, the coat of arms eroded away

 

The churchyard to the west of the path, the yew tree showing signs of storm damage

Older graves

Collage of the older graves and interesting tomb
 

Headstones on the south west
 

 

Collage showing parts of the churchyard

 

I cropped this to take out an oil tank over to the right, one headstone covered in ivy

 

Commonwealth War Grave of W.J.Byles

 

The carvings on this headstone are still there though the inscription has gone

 

Old chest tomb

 

Couple of unusual graves with coffin shaped slabs on them, one very large

 

This headstone would have had a carving on but from the look was frost damaged

 

 

St Bartholomew from across the road

After reviewing the photos I took inside the church I feel that they should be shown in a blog on their own so I am showing it in the second part next week. My blogs are long enough as it is.

I will leave you this teaser for next week

Till next time have a peaceful weekend