St Mattew Otterbourne

A few years ago before I started writing my blogs I was in Otterbourne where I had the chance to look round the village. One of the first places I noticed was the church of St Matthew. As it was in the evening I could not go in the church to see the interior so only took a few external shots. St Matthew was built built in 1837 to replace the old St Matthew which was falling down though part of it remained till the 1971, the churchyard is still there

First view of the church from the carpark by the village hall

Waling down the main street you pass this seating area

and a fine Lych gate

with inscription over the entrance

inside a seat with deadication

Further along you pass the village war memorial

with steps that lead from the footpath

nearby is the back entrance to the churchyard

which brings you round the West end of the church

waling round to view from the North side you get a good view of the bell turret

looking along the west end of the church

where you can see most of the churchyard

this is the South side with the entrance porch

when I went to the East end I spotted these three graves which I thought at the time has been pushed over. My thoughts were vandals and I wondered how senseless this act was 

I was right in a way, the vandals were Health & Safety and mushed over by persons unknown to me who are worried if they fall on some one the council will be sued. What a great world we live in.

I'll leave you with this view of St Matthew from the South East end of the churchyard and if you check the link you can get a peek inside as I doubt I'll get the chance to visit it again. Have a great Bank Holiday Weekend.

St Mary the Virgin Wheatley

This was one of those chance visits in that I happened to be in the area at the time and took the opportunity to get some photo's round the village. The one place I found first was the church of St Mary the Virgin

You enter the churchyard though this lychgate

 Which has an inscription over the are to Rev Arthur Sturges MA Vicar 1889-1907 

The path takes you to the porch

The feature of this church is the wonderful spire which is not one I have seen in Oxfordshire before.

Below in is the old entrance door

Going to the east end shows a good view of the church and south aisle

 On my walk round the church I came across this memorial to the fallen from the first & second wars

The top part listed the names in the stonework

The bottom not so long listed them on a plaque

On the arch of the porch you can see these wonderful headstops which are becoming eroded 

The west end of St Mary the Virgin

The north side and north aisle

The churchyard has quite a lot of old graves in

I came across on war grave in the west end of the churchyard

I must admit to coming into the churchyard via the churchyard gate from a footpath on the east side where you see the newer part of the churchyard

but walking along the east end takes you to the older part 

where you pass this line of tombs which are very similar. I did not check to see the names though

This part of the churchyard is on the west end

one of the ivy covered tombs

and a cross which is almost covered in ivy

looking south at the west end shows mixture of graves and is where I came across the war grave

This headstone is near the line of tombs on the east end

On the south side near the lychgate you will find the older graves

Some broken others eroding
When I first got there I tried the door expecting it to be shut but there was a lady who I think may have been cleaning and allowed me a few moments to look around and get a couple of photos.  I did not like to hold the lady up from locking up and going home so made do with these few photo's I took.

 The south aisle as you come in

 going across to the north aisle and from the look a nice stone pulpit

 The Nave.

 I'll leave you with this backdrop to the altar I spotted and managed to get a photo of
Have a wonderful Sunday

St Birnus Dorchester

St Birnus is a small Catholic church in Dorchester Oxfordshire. I remember being taken there on some occasion by my mother when I was quite young. I remember little about it other than where it was. I had the chance to visit it a few years ago  and took a few photos. The church was originally built in the 1850s by architect William Wardell

St Birnus as you walk through the churchyard to it

It is quite a small churchyard with a few graves in it.

Round what is the front you can see this statue which I think is St Birnus, the photo on the right is stitched as at the time I did not have a wide angle lens.

The eternal architecture is worth stopping to looking at

but inside will knock your socks off. The following photos were taken freehand so could be a bit out of focus.

 A small rood screen leads to the chancel with the altar

Stained galss and a statue of St Birnus can be seen in the nave.









 

 The main entrance is through the gate here  and on Monday they say a Latin Mass but if you don't want to go then it is still worth looking round and spend some time in the church