St Johns Burford

This week I've made a change to the order in which I post my blogs and showing an updated version on this one of St Johns Burford which I published in 2015 as I popped back in to get a few photos of something I missed the first time. In truth it's an amazing church and you see things you missed the first time so there may well be another visit yet

The Spire on St John's Burford is one that can be see for miles from along the A40 on the top of the of the Windrush Valley. The church dates back to the 12th century being built in 1175 and since then has been added to many times to make it what you see today. I visited it on a cold January day. You can read some history on it's own Wikipedia page in the link above
Be warned this is one of the longest blogs I have written in a while and I pondered wither to do it in two parts but I decided to leave it long, so get yourself a coffee or tea plus cake and enjoy the tour.

 

St Johns as seen from near the Almshouses entrance

 

Wide view of the church taken with my phone

 

 

And the main entrance

Looking to the south side of the churchyard you can't help notice of the tombs 

 

over to the west end more headstones 

 

The path leading along the church to the entrance

One of the bale tombs you can see 

This is the first time I have seen bale tombs

Now the presents of all these bale tombs indicates that the person or family buried were wealthy merchants that gives an indication of what you might expect to see inside

On the wall near the entrance is this plaque to Three Levellers . The church at the time was used as a prison for the Banbury Mutineers three of them were shot and buried in the churchyard. Each year they are remembered on Levellers Day

 

Going round the churchyard to the east you pass this tomb

 

 

This one is in such good condition I suspect it has been restored 

 

Solitary cross among the bale tombs

 

They must have been falling over each other to be buried here

 

  Headstones crammed in with tombs

On the east end of the churchyard are more family plots 

 

On the north side some older ones along with the odd shrub 

To the right is the River The river TThe River Windrush runs past the east end of the church

The only war grave I came across which is to Private A Search

 Surprisingly  I did not take many of the church, probably because it was so cold and I did not want to change to the wide angle lens  

 

Two steps back from here and I'm with the ducks in the river

 

The Main entrance is through this porch here

 

I did not notice the ceiling on my first visit

Look up and be amazed and the beauty of it

 

 Which when you go in and look down the aisle you see this view

 Looking up the this is the mural that you can see

On the north aisle you can see a wonderful covered font which is beautifully carved

At the back is the town war memorial listing the fallen from the first war, there is another for the second war though not so large 

  On the side is the Guild Chapel that became the Lady Chapel which was built  around 1200 but was Incorporated into the new porch in 1400

 

Wide angle view of the chapel 

The altar which I could not see much of on my first visit

This statue is new too

 

 The Reredos was another thing I could not view as a whole the last time

The Lady chapel 

 

Wider view of the lady chapel looking over to the nave

 

West view up the lady chapel 

 

This was taken the first time I visited and I was pussy footing around a meeting

I have say it is the most impressive chapel I have come across yet for memorials and there was more to come elsewhere in the church

 

 

But across in the North Aisle is this Memorial to Edmund Harman who was Barber & Personal Servant to King Henry VIII

The inscription on the side of his memorial 

small explanation on who Edmund Harman was
  

 

And this is what is written on the side of the memorial in English that you can understand

The North aisle where the memorial is, what I did not realize at the time through the far arch was another which you will see is amazing 

In the center is the small chapel of St Peter 

Which you can see here on the left 

 Next place I went to was the Chancel.

The altar was very impressive with the huge east window

The altar with mural behind

The mural of the nativity behind the altar

The stunning east window

On my fist visit to the church I came across this chapel at the end of the north aisle, inside this amazing tomb with effigies, this was about as good as I could get with showing it 

This time I took a shot with my Iphone on wide setting, no doubt I could have done the same with my camera using  the wide angle Lense

This memorial to Sir Thomas Lawrence and his wife Elizabeth was through the arch I mentioned earlier  and was quite stunning being the most amazing tomb effigy's I've seen yet
The fellow kneeling is their grandson Lucius Cary 2nd Viscount of Falkland

compare this with the first view I took of the tomb years ago, it's huge

Lucius Cary age 18

 

This was their only child Elizabeth  married to Henry Cary 1st Viscount of Falkland her son is on the other end of the tomb

 

Couple of views of the effigies themselves 

View of Sir Thomas and his wife

Elizabeth and Sir Lawrence

This is what I missed the first time as I never though to look down, it's one of only three I have come across in Oxfordshire, the other two are at Ewelme and Fifield

Near the tomb is this clock mechanism and bell
The clock was made in 1685 by Hercules Hastings for the sum of £10.

There are a few more chapels to see but this one was worth looking at with the memorials and the  boards listing gifts to the poor

Lots of people wanted to be remembered well

 

on the floor were more memorials or they could even be crypts

 

This was another chapel I noted 

with this fellow taking pride & place on the wall

who is John Harris who was alderman & mayor of Oxford. He was also a benefactor of the town.

Another beautiful memorial you can see

Looking back from the chancel

 the eagle lectern

West window in the nave

Another more recent view of the window

Crossover roof view

Pulpit

View from it 

 
Original view of the pulpit which at the time forgot to vet a view from

The stained-glass windows in the church are stunning.

With various scenes shown in them

Back of the south asile

St Andrew, St George and St Patrick

This one is in memory of a family who are mentioned in the bottom right

I cropped the inscription out for you to read

This is a more modern window with scenes from the crucifixion 

 In one chapel you can see the remains of some medieval wall painting

Entrance to the bell tower

By the time I took this I had had not realized I had wandering round for an hour and had left my wife in the car so I left quickly to meet up with her. I could have sent a couple of hours in the church alone taking better photos and reading the memorials, maybe I'll get a chance to return.

I spend about 15 minuets this time but in all honesty, I could have spent a few hours looking around.

Burford is a but if a tourist town and if you visit make time to look around the church

Till Next time have a peaceful weekend