St Mary Avington

The last church on my Ichen Valley walk was St Mary Avington  which is not that far from the last one in Ichen Abbas. Avington is a small parish which was probably part of Avington Park beside it at one time. The church is set back off the road and you can walk past it without realiseing

You need to look out  for this best kept village post by the gate.

where you will also see another Pilgrims way plaque. The path way is made up of old headstones, good way to recycle them

St Mary's Church Avington.

The churchyard looks quite bare when you look up along it

you could say empty even

 but you can see why as these are all old headstone used in the path

there are a few ledf standing through

 Looking towards the bell tower

One of the graves neat & Tidy. I wondered if you could get round the south side but on either end is a wall which makes me thing it was built by the park owner years ago

 Inside made me gasp a bit though. The camera is set on my tripod which tells you the church is full of box pews and really well made ones at that

The altar sits behind  nice wrought iron altar rails. I never though to take  closeups of the inscription on the back of the altar

because I was too taken with these amazing memorials either side

Turn round gives this view to the organ loft at the back

I took a couple of closeups of the left hand memorial I thought the work so detailed

This is the stained glass window behind the altar

Stepping off the altar you see this gravestone to Lady Anna Eliza Brydges

She was born in 1779 and died in 1836 and was married to Lord Kinross when she died.

On the right is a candle chandler 

There are a lot of very impressive family memorials

This one I only just noticed who it was, as I have come across his brother before.

 Memorial to Elizabeth Emily Peel

Some of the detail on the memorial

Funerary Hatchment

Memorial to Dudley Hepburn Stent

& Edmund Mitchell Parfitt

Royal Coat of Arms

which can be seen on the organ loft. The covered pulpit is a very nice feature

Looking down from the pulpit gives a better view of the box pews

and a nice view of the altar

no doubt this was the lord of the manors box pew

On the pulpit lectern was this bible

which was old & well used

Above the box pew is the memorial to Lady Anna Eliza Brydges, I wonder if it was her personal pew. The out of focus photo on the right is the  church font, they seem to like them small in the area.

A last look at the church then it was off on the last bit of my walk

But I took a couple of photos of the headstones I was walking on

There is even one at the gate as you go in

I did not get far on the walk  as  I spotted this cemetery nearby

 With a family Tomb of the Shelly Family

There was one war grave to Private H Dean

This is looking down the cemetery, you can see the church about mid photo

Back of the Shelly Tomb

Ivy covered crosses by the wall 

And the newer part of the cemetery which is in use now

An old family tomb

That concludes the  Ichen Vally Churches I visted Hope enjoyed them
 Have a nice weekend