St Botoph Swyncome

 Walk along the Ridgeway path through Oxfordshire and you will pass through a small place called Swyncome and pass by a small 11th century church called St Botoph

The church is set back off a country road beside Swyncome House.

I came here to find a war grave I had heard about but was taken back by the setting the church was in.

The churchyard did have a lot of headstones in it which looked old. People had just come out of the church after the Sunday service so I took the opportunity to go inside for some photos.

On entering the church you will be greeted with this view 

Going through the rood screen you will see the Chancel

Looking back from the rood screen along the nave.

Here you can see the curved wall and ceiling which are painted.

You can see some stunning stained glass widows and memorials to past rectors of the church.

A superb carving on one of the choir stalls in the chancel

and if you look by the window nearby you can see a photo of the church before the rood screen was built.

Back in the nave I was shown this window which was in memory of  Alfred Taylor and his wife Lizzie

If you look at the back wall of the nave, high up you can see a window with some very old stained glass in.

You can see the stone font at the back and displays of flowers as well

In the porch you can see this bequeath and plaque.

Outside the churchyard is well kept

With the odd headstone slowly sinking out of site 

Some headstones are being snagged by ivy

some getting covered in lichen

You can even find some old ones in very good condition

Some others lost in ivy

But it's worth a wander round looking a the inscriptions.

The headstone I came to visit is to Sergeant J.H.Barnett buried at St Botolph Swyncome.  He was at 19 OTU (operational training unit) RAF Kinloss. The OTUs were the places that men went to after they had qualified in there particular category, pilot, navigator, wireless operator/air gunner, to form up into crews before they went operational to a particular squadron. Jack was the rear gunner of A/W Whitley V serial no. AD710 piloted by Flight Sergeant J E Williams DFM. They took off from Kinloss on a night exercise and flew into a violent electrical storm and it is believed that the aircraft was struck by lightning. Two members of the crew managed to bale out before the aircraft smashed into the ground near Dalcross, Inverness-shire at 00.55. The pilot and other four members of the crew including Jack, perished. His body was returned to Swyncombe for burial. 

 RIP. His name is listed on the Memorial on Cooley Green not far away.

Since writing this post I have been given some more information about Sergeant J.H.Barnett who is buried near the East end of the church, seems the information I read was wrong. I have updated this. My Thanks to Mike Willoughby for the info

Two Churches

Back in 2010 I happened to be in Northamptonshire  with my wife who was at a training day with her dog. I took the opportunity to go for a walk round the area so I headed off to Pitsford where there was a reservoir I wanted to visit. On the way I passed a church called All Saints I could not pass it off without looking round the place.

Now who could pass off a church like this

Walking in the gate you can see the churchyard

 Turning to the right you see the village War Memorial

and a view of the church from the chancel end

Walking round the north side of the churchyard you can see many older graves

and more wonderful views of the church

You can see this beautiful praying angel at the west end of the churchyard

The west end  showing the bell tower

 The porch leading to the church, unfortunately the door wa locked when I tried it.

On the ground t looks like part of the church has fallen off.

Looking across the south side of the churchyard

This was the first time I saw what I thought were small headstones but turned out to be footstones.

 Looking back at the church with the War Memorial

Later after lunchI went to Boughton where I came across St Johns Church

The church can be seen here up the street

It also is on the roadside

On the back of the church you can find these memorials

Round the side you can find the churchyard though there are few graves to see.

Looking across the chancel end of the church

Where you can see some of the older headstones. St Johns church was built to replace the one that was abandoned a few miles away, you can read about it here  I hope you have enjoyed my walk.