St Mary Easton

St Mary was the first of four churches I had planned to visit on a walk I was doing near Winchester. turned out most of them were along the Pilgrim way. St Mary is reputed to be Norman though I can find little in the way of history about the church though it does belong to the Ichen Valley Churches and you will be visiting all of them in the next four blogs

This is the view you get of the church from the road side, one thing I liked was the bell cote.

 The churchyard has this nice lych Gate and either side is a small roll of honour

Just next door is the old church school and if I'm right through the porch are two doors, one for Boy's & one for Girl's

 First thing you notice is the Norman doorway

To the left is the bell cote and stairwell leading to it, On top is  a weathercock

looking over to the right you can see the chancel end of the church

 Outside the entrance are some old chest tombs

On the North side of the church the doorways is mirrored though not so embellished, not doubt the did not want the peasants getting ideas.

Viewing the church from the East end you can see it has and Apse topped with a a chancel cross

 Going inside was a bit of a  problem as the door was locked but I heard a voice telling me to wait a Minuit and when the door opened it was full of people cleaning so some of the photo's this week will have people in them.

Down near the wonderfully carved rood screen is a wooden pulpit on a stone plinth and opposite is the font which looks like it could date back to Norman times as well

Going inside the apse chancel you can view a clad wall to the back of the altar

 Which is well lit from the three windows

 This is the central window with the crucifixion depicted

you can see these windows on either side

 Looking out of the chancel you can see this view of a well re-ordered church

Looking down the nave the walls are wood clad though the original pews were replaced, are and wood worm taking their toll

This is a view of the rood screen which at one time also had a loft

Because I spotted a door above the pulpit and another to the side of it which lead to the stairs

There are some nice memorials on the walls which date back to 1595 but unfortunately
it came out blurred  but was to Agatha Barlow

Memorial to on eo fthe rectors of the church

This is one amazing framed nativity scene used as a memorial 

Coat of arms (Charles II )

Beautiful roll of honour for WWI

Memorial to J M Freshfield

Under the WWI roll of honour is this one to the fallen from WWII

I did also notice a couple of lancet windows with glass that looks like it could be Tudor

At the back under the bell cote you can see another stained glass window and a memorial which was not easy to get a photo of. By the time I got here I felt I had been under their feet too long and went outside to the churchyard

These are some of the old headstones you see

near the path leading to the church

some similar indicating a family group

some near the church though the words long since eroded away

couple of family chest tombs

here we look to the far side of the church yard which is very large for the size of the village

These tombs are around the east end of the church looking across to the river Ichen

After leaving I took a walk to the far side of the churchyard where the newer graves are

and took this on leaving the churchyard and trundled on to the next church on the list

If you have time walking the Ichen or Pilgrims way then it is worth having a look  in the church
  I'll leave you with I took of the church after I crossed the River Ichen