Saturday 7 November 2015

St Frideswide Frilsham



  St Frideswide is in the same parish as St Peter & St Paul Yattendon  and only a few miles away. It was the second on my list for the day.  "The church is hidden away at a bend in the road. It's most significant feature is its circular churchyard, an indication of an Iron Age pagan site. The later Roman temple here would have been converted for Christian worship in late Roman or early Saxon period. It could have originally been used for the worship of Jupiter, for an altar dedicated to the chief of the gods was once found buried in the parish. There is nothing left of the Saxon Church built here to commemorate to holy events of St. Frideswide's life, but the present building is of 12th century date. The chancel and larger windows were added in the 15th century under the patronage of Sir John Norreys. The brick tower only dates from 1834, but probably replaced an earlier wooden bell turret. The two bells are dated 1662." The quoted text was found on the Frilsham Parish website.

 Hidden is the word as it's hidden behind the Yew

 The tower that was added in the 19th century
 View of the church or at least what I could see from here with the big yew on the right

 The war memorial looking like a preaching cross




 The memorial is on the North side of the church



The east  end looking to the tower with the yew to the left.
The porch on the church which also looks 19th century 

 The nave in St Frideswide looking towards the Chancel

 The font looks old and could date back to the 12th century

 Will say one thing the local ladies put on a beautiful floral display




Over on the North wall you can see the roll of honour along with the British legion Flag










 The chancel arch with enclosed lectern on side and pulpit the other. Just to the left and right here you can see the choir stalls 






going in the chancel you can see the altar behind the rails




with a nice green altar cloth
Above is the stained glass chancel window




The chancel was not the only stained glass window in the church as you can see from this one of St Frideswide




or this one beside the pulpit








The wooden  pulpit  with the church banner behind it



On the other side is this enclosed lectern 
Looking down the nave from the pulpit






Or another view from beside it















There were a few memorials on the walls
like this one to the Floyd family












and this one to the Pottinger family



This one to Robert Hayward is becoming hard to read

Also on the walls were a plaque telling yo the community was recorded in the Domesday book and a piece of information on a well I missed seeing nearby





You were OK for kneelers in the church




Outside the churchyard is not large and overpopulated like some churchyards. These graves can be seen as you walk along the path to the church









Another view of the south side by the path leading to the church
















The north side of the church had some graves in and a cast head stone along with footstone







 Most of which you can see in this photo and fourth photo I showed of the church with the War Memorial

The cast one here the more interesting  as it had a foot stone which you can see in the previous photo




The east end has more graves to see




and a yew tree



most of the graves here are  family graves





the inscriptions still visible to read













 I'll leave you with a final view of the church & Churchyard.
Have a Good Weekend

9 comments:

  1. Great turret on this church.

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  2. BillI followed the link tht you haveon for Photo Scavening Hunt for your entry to that meme however I do not seem to be able to find it on your blog. Can you giive me the correct link or hint as to where it is as I would like to see how you illustate the word prompts

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  3. I like the mix of brick and stone and of course the interior. Nice windows.

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  4. Hello Bill!
    Beautiful photos.
    I love the architecture is great.
    Very interesting interior.
    HAPPY week.
    Greetings from Polish.
    Lucia

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lovely church. I enjoy walking among the gravestones, reading the inscriptions.

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  6. The inside is grand - loved your tour. The outside, however, looks like many of other small churches that I saw in England. It was fun to see the seal of Doomesday within.

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  7. What a wonderful place with some amazing history!

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  8. That was such a nice tour of that church. Enjoyed my virtual visit there. I'll have to find out why Frideswide was made a saint.

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  9. Loved this tour of the church! It must have so much history within its walls. The stained glass windows are beautiful. I find old graveyards fascinating as a general rule, and this one was no exception. My family has been here in Iowa since the 1850s, so I'm blessed to be able to visit the graves of my family back till then. But I do know that way back some of my ancestors were buried at a church like this one in the UK (and I hope still are buried there, though I haven't had the chance to travel to the "old country" and see for myself.) Thanks again for the wonderful post!

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