St Mary's Church Cholsey

 

Many of you will know of St Mary's Church through the fact Agatha Christie is buried here but I have never really given this church the blog it deserves, I have written bit's about it but never done it justice. It has more history surrounding it than you will read on Wikipedia and some I have read in the books I own. There has been a church on the site since Saxon times and it is thought the church was built on an old Monastery that was here. No doubt King Alfred the Great knew of the Monastary because he defeated the Danes a few miles away almost with in sight of the village.

The Monistary was founded in 986 and was there till around 1100 when it disappears from the records and a church is recorded. The Normans rebuilt the church around 1150-1175

Your fist view as you walk though the carpark to the church

 

Here we look at the East end of the church from the churchyard

On top of the East end you can see the chancel cross, this was replaced a few years ago, the old one crumbling away 

Looking over at the church from the South East towards the Chancel

Going further around on the South of the church

The South west view along to the Porch

The West end, which along with the South side has been rendered which I think was a cheap way to overcome the crumbling pointing of the stonework underneath done years before I was born

The view from the North West end 

Looking at the North side of the church the walls this are rendered as well

Going around to the North East end

 The open porch on the church. This is a recent addition to protect the Norman doorway

 The doorway inside the porch

 The arch on the door 

 

This part is a tympanum a rare item on churches, I have only seen a couple more of them in Oxfordshire, there is a mass dial on it which I could just make out in the centre but is almost worn away. It may have been partly lost as it looks to me like a couple of the blocks were replaced at some time. a close look shows the materials look different.

 

 Closer view shows the stone eroded but you can clearly see the lines of the mass dial

Either side you can see these pillars, this one is in better condition and on the stone work are another couple of mass dials you can see the centre dimple of one in the picture

I found out about the mass dials on the porch after seeing  this on the corner of the transept

A closer look shows the centre and points of a mass dial, above what I think may be the faint markings of a second dial.

 

 

Parts of the church date to Saxon times which can be seen on some of the corner stones here and the change in the stonework 

on the South side of the church you can see the older stone work again, The chancel is later but it looks like the older stone work had been reused in this as well as you can see a mixture of stone and flint

On the North wall there is another old entrance which is blocked off and rendered inside. Inside the church you will find just a smooth wall 

Around the outside of the windows at the end of the arc you will find these headstops

I could not tell you the age of them but some date back to the middle ages or older

On the tall windows on the North East wall of the church yuu will find more headstops, some in better condition that others

There re more on the South East wall windows

The door in the chancel which is now used to enter the church through has a couple of eroded heads on it.

This fellow watches over you as you walk in the door

 

As you come in the churchyard you will find there are a lot of graves with headstone. Some of them are old and eroded

In front of the East end of the church the graves are more spread out. The two crosses in the centre belong to two members of the same family who used to work at Fair Mile Hospital last century, their sister is buried with them

The tombs you see here are mostly from the Boshers Family who had a successful building company from 1820 till it went into administration at Christmas a few years ago

There are a mixture of modern and older graves in this part South of the church

Near the church small trees grow, one of them in the stump of the old Yew tree that was in the churchyard. It blew down in the gales back in the 1980's, the wood used to make.

This was the new extension built bad in the 1950's this section is now full

 

 

 

 

 

Another view of the extension from the footpath that takes you to the meadow but the church

This is the new part that is in use which is at the East end of the 1950's extension

As you walk along the path leading from the churchyard extension over to the left you will see this angel , when I was young I remember her having a trumpet it has long gone now. The memorial is to William Murdock who was the superintendent of Fair Mile Hospital, his wish was that the was buried in the part of the churchyard where the patents he looked after that had died so he could continue watching over them

 

 

 

 

Walk along the path further and you will see some of the older headstones over towards the West

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walk around the church looking towards the North West corner you will see Agatha Christie's  headstone near the wall

If you go around the North

 side of the church you will see more older headstones

 

 

 

 

We look East along the North side of the churchyard

Above family plots beside each other along with many others South of the church

We look East down the churchyard here from the footpath to the extension

The Angel watches over the Church

After starting this blog I decided that the inside should be given a post of it's own because of the detail I would like to include. I also need to get some new photos of the inside as I find that the ones I have do not cover what I want to show but for now click this link and you can see some of the inside

I will leave you this week with this view of the Chancel cross

I wish you all a great weekend on this first Sunday of Advent

Take Care and Stay Safe