Saturday 26 February 2022

St Mary Thame

 

Thame a town which gives it's name to the river names after it, the river eventually winds its was to come out at Dorchester and joins the River Isis and becomes the River Thames. I have been to the town before many years ago and found it a beautiful largely unspoiled market town. At the time I was not really interested in visiting churches and never realised it was not far from the town centre. 

I am going to publish this blog in two parts showing the inside next week. This is due to the fact it takes  a lot of work to produce the blog to show the amount of content I put in and that there is a lot to show from the inside

"The earliest feature of the Church of England parish church of Mary the Virgin is the 12th century base of the font. The font's octagonal bowl was re-cut in the 13th century. The present church is a cruciform building that was built in the 13th century. The chancel is Early English Gothic and was built in about 1220, with six lancet windows in its north wall and presumably a similar arrangement in the south wall. It was twice altered in the next few decades: a three-light plate tracery window was inserted in its north wall in the mid-13th century and the five-light east window with geometrical tracery was inserted in about 1280. Whatever lancet windows may have been in the chancel south wall were replaced with three two-light Decorated Gothic windows with reticulated tracery, and a double piscina was added at the same time.

The transepts and tower arches are also early 13th century. The nave has five-bay north and south aisles whose arcades were built in about 1260. The aisles were widened in the 14th century, when they acquired their Decorated Gothic windows and doors. The Decorated Gothic south porch has two storeys and a two-bay quadripartite vault.

The Perpendicular Gothic clerestory is 14th or early 15th century. In the 15th century the tower piers were strengthened and the two upper stages of the tower were built. In 1442 the north transept was rebuilt with five-light Perpendicular Gothic north and east windows with panel tracery. At about the same time the south transept acquired similar windows and was extended eastwards to form a chapel with a 15th-century piscina. The Perpendicular Gothic nave west window was inserted in 1672–73, making it an example of Gothic survival. In 1838 the north aisle north wall was rebuilt under the direction of George Wilkinson. The tower has a ring of eight bells, all cast by Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1876."


 St Mary looking at the east from across the churchyard

This is the way I came in which in on the north side of the church

Around the west end looking across the churchyard

The south side, the paths are lined with trees that tend to spoil the view of the church

Back to the east end at a junction of paths

Anther view of St Mary from the south east

Looking up at the tower from the confluence of the south transept

The porch which looks like it had a room over the top with the lancet window


North west view of the church

This is looking east along the tree lined path from where I entered the churchyard first of all


Private Charles (Charlie) Boiling

Looking along the footpath west along the north of the church

The west end churchyard which is full of graves and a lot of more recent ones as well

South along the footpath at the west end


Another junction of paths, the one to the right taking you to the main gates

Edward (Ted) Watson a veteran of the tank regiment in WWII

A sign which says you are in Gods Acre


The more recent part of the churchyard on the south side

An angel watches down on her charge

Looking east over the churchyard on the south side, it is a vast one to cover

You could spend a long time looking around the churchyard

The commonwealth war graves are near each other over on the south east side of the churchyard

 
 An impressive chest tomb


You might remember this grave in the distance on one of my previous photo, I quite suppressed to find it near the church but I remember his funeral was at the church, the fresh flowers no doubt left there by adoring fans.
The Bee Gees might not have been a favourite band of mine but there is not doubt that they gave a lot of pleasure to use over the years. Rest In Peace Robin





Saturday 19 February 2022

St James Sotwell

 

 I have visited this church before in the past but never wrote a blog for it on it's own. I felt it deserved on and I really wanted to see inside so after phoning the churchwarden I arrange to go along one morning. Sotwell is right next door to Brightwell and were two separate villages in the past but eventually became know as Brightwell-Cum-Sotwell in 1948. I cannot find any history on the church. This will be the first of a few revisits to churches I plan this year.

Looking at the north side from near the road
 
From the south west near the entrance on that side
 Walking back past the south west end along the path from the road north of the church

Snowdrops growing by the path at the west end

Taken from the path looking over at the north side

The north side of St James

The east end of the church

Going around to the south east end where you find another entrance into the church

I noticed some interesting features in the church walls like this carved stone that formed a lancet window from the original Norman church here
This doorway in the north side is a little short for most people now a days

 Another feature is this lancet you can see on the north side of the nave
 
 
The churchyard with snowdrops growing in the foreground

Churchyard at the west end 

walking along the churchyard path you pass this bench

Some tombs you can see in the church yard
 
Looking east over the south side

The graves at the east end of the church

Where you can also see these crosses

This headstone was unusual in that it has a metal crucifix attached

More headstones at the east end

This cross caught my eye with the cavalry sword on it

A memorial tow to brothers from the village who gave their lives in the First World War

Another interesting one with the inscription gone 

It had cross rifles on it

Looking west towards the churchyard path from the road

Decorated with stones

This headstone belonging to  J H L Blount was interesting in that he served for the queens flight a few miles away at RAF Benson. He dies along with the crew of a helicopter that crashed near Brightwalden

His wife rests with him

 This headstone still has the carving on the top even through the rest has sunk in the ground

 
The porch which with the door I could see was open

In the church which is a single cell along the nave 
 
 
Taken with my iPhone along the nave

The altar and rails

Closer in an the altar, I suffered with glare with the use my iPhone

Looking back through the church to the west end
 
The puplet with is low and open
 

 You get a nice view of the church from the pulpit
 
 
No organ but a grand piano 

 
Took a shot of the chandelier 

The font which looks Victorian 

For such a small church it has some nice stained glass in it, the east window 

At the back is another beautiful stained glass window

A single stained glass window

Stained glass widow in the north wall of the nave

Wall light

There are wall lights in the church like this all with the scallop shell

A few memorials in the church, this one to Sidney Robert Stevenson 

Anther relic from the old church

Memorial to a former Churchwarden A P Waterfield

On my way out I took this shot of a cross and vases with a scallop shell beneath the west window

After another look around the churchyard I walked back to the car parked on the road. which nearing the gate I noticed a couple of small headstones one with the name Monica Lay I released next to her would be her son David who I knew from my younger days, the words on his headstone faded. A sad end to my visit to to St James

 To finis with the snowdrops beneath the west window of St James Church
Take Care and have a peaceful weekend