St Giles Great Coxwell

This week we are back in Oxfordshire and will be visiting churches around Faringdon, normally I write my blogs in the order I visited the churches but I will start with the furthest one as I am working my way back towards Oxford along the A420. Some history courtesy of Wikipedia
"The Church of England parish church of Saint Giles is on a ridge in the southern part of the village. Parts of the church date from about 1200. The west tower was added in the 15th century.
The tower has a ring of five bells. Henry Bagley of Chacombe cast the treble, third and fourth bell in 1738. James Wells of Aldbourne, Wiltshire cast the second bell in 1824. Mears and Stainbank cast the tenor bell in 1911. There is also a Sanctus bell that John Taylor cast in 1839, presumably at his then foundry in Oxford. The bells are currently unringable.
The churchyard is now managed for wildlife. It has more than 100 species of wild flower, including wild clary, Salvia verbenaca.^{"
Unfortunately me the rain that had held off up to now started to come down so rather than use my DSLR I used my Compact camera so the photos are not quite as sharp as I like}

 

The gate to the church and path leading to the porch

The South side looking to the tower

 The North side with part of the churchyard

Above the bell tower

The oak framed porch and door leading in

Looking along the nave to the chancel arch which is quite small

Above the Chancel arch and the chancel behind.

Right the altar

Looking back to the arch and from the arch to the Nave

The recesses either side of the altar now hold flower vases rather than the Icons that would have been there

The pulpit along with the view you get from it, notice the doorway behind it

This was the entrance to the old Rood loft that would have been here

The steps still go up bu the loft entrance is now blocked up though you can see where is was on the wall above

Above tomb of Robert Russel who died in 1630

Not far way is another tomb

Normally church brasses are on the tomb slab in the floor but this one is laid on the North wall

Could not make out who was on the stones but they had three children, two boys and a girl

The lady who faces her husband

Quite a few memorials in the church, the main memorial is to Francis Spindler wife of the rector if St Martins

The rest of the memorial has other inscriptions on it as well

At the bottom you can see The Reverend Bond Spindler is remembered as well

Memorial to Mary Bristow

One to the Smith family

Above memorial to Ann Batho


Right one to the Spackman family

The Rev John Francis Cleaver is remembered here

There is some beautiful stained glass in the church, the one above is in  the nave

The good Samaritan

Above one of the Nave window with an etched pane commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ending of World War Two

The chancel window is another with many etched panes

The all have a different date on them and coats of arms

Some how I do not think this one dates to 1351

The kneelers have animals on them like these pet rabbits

and a nice one of a red squirrel eyeing up nuts

The church chest

The Village Roll of Honour

The door to from the porch and right the font

I only took a few of the churchyard and by the time I came out it was raining hard

So only a couple of photos of the headstones.  As I will be returning to visit Little Coxwell not far away  I will see if I can get a few more photos of the churchyard then

I will leave you this week with a photo of the beautifully carved font cover .

Till next time have a wonderful week