St Mary the Virgin Purley

Purley on Thames is an old Berkshire parish very near Reading. The village dates back to Saxon times and the church here was founded around 1121 and described as 'ancient' in a founding charter of Reading Abbey. It was burnt down in 1135 during the Anarchy and the Normans rebuilt it in 1150. Graves dating from the 10th & 11th century were uncovered about a foot under the surface in some excavation work in 1982. I came here to look for a grave of someone killed in the Reading Bombing of 1943 unfortunately my search came to nought and the church was locked as well which is not uncommon in the area. These are a few photos I took while I was there.

Nice lych gate leading to the churchyard

St Mary the Virgin, one of the nice feature's I like is the belltower

Few old headstones lined up against the churchyard wall

The churchyard itself on the south side of the church

Path leading down to the entrance porch

The clock which was was probably fitted around the 17th or 18th century, one thing I like here is the coat of arm dated 1626 no doubt when the belltower was built.

 

View up the belltower and one of the war graves in the churchyard

This headstone is a memorial, one of the persons mentioned was killed in a bombing raid on the Rhine

North side of the church where they have extended the church. A feature I am not keen on as it spoils the look of the church, I think this was were the 10th century burials were uncovered

View along the west end of the churchyard 

 

St Mary the Virgin looking from the South East side of the churchyard
That's it for this year. May I wish you all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year and thank you for taking the time to read my Blogs.

All Saints Rotherfield Peppard

 This church I came across while doing some field work for a Lady who was writing a book on her Mothers life as a Mental Nurse back in 1939. She had been working at a nearby Mental Hospital and worshiped at this church. I went along to get a few photos of the church to send off for the book. As you can see it was a cold January when I visited

The Lych gate you see in the photo above has this plaque attached to it. Going though you get a better view of the church we are about to Visit

 Headingover the South East end of the churchyard gives this view of the church

 Then round the East to see the chancel end

Going on round the north side shows a small extension for the office

Heading in through the door you will see this view

but turn round and you can view this great stained glass window

In the center stands the church font

Going on to the chancel provides you with quite a choice of what to view

the carved wood altar with inlays or the backdrop mural of the altar

From the chance you can get a great view of the church

The font is quite simple

to one side is the north aisle with the lady chapel

and on the back wall are a few bequeaths

but I think it is the amount of stained glass windows that surprised me with this church

A lot  of the stained glass seems to revolve around the nativity as with above the annunciation

the on eon the right are the three magi and the birth of Our Lord

Another beautiful small window

Another with the birth of Jesus and a knight praying before the crucifix

This is the chancel window, which I find quite stunning

Back outside near the west end you can see the village war memorial

The churchyard is quite large

with quite a few old headstones

even on the north side

Love the carvings on these which date back to around 1700














Coming out of the lych gate if you turn right you see another taking you to the village cemetery.
On the gate pillars are a couple of more dedications

The cemetery has the newer graves than the one in the churchyard

and there are a couple of war graves there both from the RAF

Though this marker was the find of the day to me. I had to look up Old Contemptible.  J.H.Cumberland  M.M was with the Royal Field Artillery and fought in the first stages of World War one. I know of three other Old Contemptibles and they are buried at Old Reading Cemetery

Hope you have enjoyed the visit to this church. Have a great Sunday.

Taking Part in Inspired Sunday

St Michael, Cefnllys

I came across this church while looking at a map of Llandidrod Wells, it was off the beaten track so to speak and looked to be in the middle of know where as there seemed to be no houses nearby. I checked it out on Geograph to see if any one had good a photo of the church and was pleased to see there was and as I suspected it was sat isolated on the side of a hill quite away from the nearest road.
One Saturday I ventured out to visit the church which dates back to the 13th century but was extensively restored in the 19th century after the vicar of Llandidrod Wells had the roof removed to try to encourage the  parishioners to attend the new church that had been built in town. It was unsuccessful and the church was restored in 1895. I have revisited in 2024 to update the photos so there are a mixture of older and new photos

On the way down hill St Michael Cefnllys can be seen on the left of the hill

Remember I said it was isolated, well you can just make the church out to the left

 

 Seems there are two paths, one runs to the right of me and brings you in the back the other straight ahead to another gate, sheep just watch you go by 

 

St Michael s Church from the south side of the churchyard

Going round the north side  

North east view

 

East end of the church

 

South east view

The bell tower and porch
 

 which has to large tomb slabs attached to the wall

 

One of the tomb slab or memorials on the porch wall

 

Inside the porch

 

Headstone of Thomas Probert

Updated photo taken in 2024, there are no electric lights in the church

This is using the gorillapod on the floor as when I took it I had forgotten my tripod

This one is taken using the flash on my camera

 

The rood screen which I could not say how old it is but there is a photo of the church with no roof showing the screen in place

 

 

2024 I used a better camera with no tripod

 

Using an iphone as I came in the church

 

 The church has changed little

 

 The rood screen and pulpit

 

 

Center part with rood cross

 

Pulpit which stands on a stone plinth and looks very nicely carved. I had a good look around and got excited at what I found

 

 

This time I had a closer look at the pulpit, the bottom left I noticed when I got home has a date on it of 1661 which was inside the pulpit, my excuse for not getting a better photo of the area is because it was quite dark and i did not see what was on the wood panel at the time

That sort of corresponds with what I noticed on the side of the pulpit the date there shows what looks like 166 0 TI, the initials of the maker perhaps. I suspect the screen is about the same age

 

 Looking down from the pulpit

 

 

The altar back in 2014

 

2024 photo of the altar shows

 The kneeler is leaning against the altar in 2014 and there is no altar cross

 

 

Looking over to the left an one of the windows

 

 

 

Ground level view of the clerks desk 

 

 

One of the memorials you have to look for near the organ
 

 Collage of the various memorials around the church

 

 

2024 view of the clerks desk

 

Rood screen and cross

 

fret work on the screen

 

Old photos taken when they restored the church
 

The church organ which is small and hides a few memorials

 In 2024 the doors were in place so the view of the pipes was gone

Memorial above the old doorway at the back

Roof space

The oak rood cross was made and presented by S Edwards Temple Bazaar in December 1985, it was made from the wood taken from the old church

Chair by the altar

 

 A Piscina in one corner

 

The other had this recess

 

 That held the Holy Bible, now I always have  a look at them to see how old they are and if a date and inscription is there, this one I found was in Welsh

 

 and was quite beautiful inside with illustrations to see

Took this shot in 2014

 

2024 still glowing

 

 This Paining was still there which was nice to see

The kneelers in 2014

This time I took photos of a lot of them

 

and made a collage

Lectern cloth

The church from by the organ

 

The pulpit which is as old as the church itself

 

Back in the churchyard there are many old graves

 

Family plot

Some are tombs under a yew tree which have become covered in green algae 

 

 

  Old but still readable

You can see others with a covering of lichen but considering the position the churchyard is well kept and not overgrown like some

 

 

 2024 someone had cleaned the inscription on the cross

 You were able to read what it said

 

I liked how this one has colored over the years

 

Headstones, one more recent

 

2024 view of the churchyard

I will take my leave with this floral display

Till next time may I wish you all a pleasant week