St John the Baptist Stanton St John

 

 Stanton St John is near Oxford and one of the villages I had missed visiting in the past, a couple of weeks ago I decided to remedy that and go visit a couple of churches around the area. Some history from Wikipedia

"The Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist was built in the 12th century. The arcade between the nave and north aisle dates from this period and is in the Transitional style between Norman architecture and Early English Gothic. The chancel arch also is Transitional, but may have been rebuilt in about 1700. The chancel was rebuilt around the beginning of the 14th century and is a high quality example of the transition from Early English (its side windows) to the Decorated Gothic (its east window, which has unusual tracery). The south aisle was built late in the 14th century, with a clerestory above its arcade to light the nave. In the 15th century all but one of the windows in the north aisle were replaced with Perpendicular Gothic ones and the bell tower was built. The church furniture includes four early 16th century benches whose bench ends have unusual carvings of poppyheads, human heads and grotesque animals.

The tower has a ring of five bells. Ellis and Francis Knight of Reading cast the treble and fourth bells in 1652. Michael Darbie, an itinerant bellfounder, cast the third bell in 1656. Henry III Bagley of Chacombe, Northamptonshire cast the second bell in 1716, possibly at his foundry at Witney. Abraham II Rudhall of Gloucester cast the tenor bell in 1724, completing the current ring."

Take from across the churchyard

 

Walking on the churchyard from the road you will get this view of the church along the south side

 

St John the Baptist as seen form over the wall beside the roadside  path

Looking at the bell tower from the south you can see the spiral staircase runs up the side of the tower

 

The west end of the church with the north aisle

Going around to view the north side

Onto the road where you get a good view the opposite side

Closer shot showing the east end of the chancel and north aisle

The south aisle and entrance

To the left a window that I noticed something interesting

A mass dial

Over to the left of the path is this part of the churchyard

The Commonwealth War Grave of Private R.W.East

Another path of the churchyard

The Commonwealth War Grave of Private W.Watts

The west end churchyard by the tower

Looking around the north side

Where you can find the village war memorial

Mixture of old headstones around the south side of the church

 

One of them I noticed had a skull on the top, the inscription below long gone

 

 I noticed lots of primroses growing around the north side of the church

 

 

While the south side had these grape hyacinths 

Next week I will show the photos of the inside.

Till next time take care and have a peaceful weekend