Saturday 2 April 2022

St Nicolas Abingdon Revisit

 

Change of plan this week. I had interned to post about St Helen's Church in Abingdon which is only around half a mile away near the river Thames but the opportunity  to return to St Nicolas to see the inside came up so I grabbed my chance and took it. I found some more history on the church website so if you visit you can read it yourself.

 
St Nicolas from by the Market Place
 

If I read the history right this is one of the older past of the church

Inside the door to the church

 
 Most likley this would have held a holy statue at one time

 
Inside looking down the nave using a wide angle lens
 

 Further along and the chancel


 In the chancel looking at a screen across the back
 

 Nave again with my iPhone

 
Chancel from the modern altar
 

Nave showing the choir stalls

Altar and rails

East window

Centre panel depicting St Nicolas

Behind the screen is this altar or shrine

 
But look up and you will see this gem that dates back to medieval times

View from the chancel arch to the west end of the church

I changed over to a wide angel lens here to show all the chancel some of which dates to the 15th century

 
One from inside the arch looking back

 
From the altar looking at the back of the arch which looks offset which to me indicates the chancel was rebuilt in the 15th along with the Abbey Gatehouse which cased this narrowing

 
The Jacobian pulpit with a window behind which seems to have been shortened by the chancel arch, this bit dates to the 14th century

 
Looking down from the pulpit





The organ with the chamber behind is a lot more modern

 
As are the choir stalls which look Victorian

 
The carvings on the choir stall ends

There are quite a few memorials around the walls as you can see from the collage 

 
The north wall of the chancel has it's own collage of them

Off to the side of the nave is the Blaknall aisle with a Tudor window letting in light

From what I have seen in a photo taken before the Victorian restoration this monument was over on the south wall of the nave near the arch

Looking up the paintings loo quiet amazing though I do not think the are Tudor

John Blacknall and his wife along with their two daughters who survived them


All kneeling opposite each other in Prayer


I dare say the colour has been restored but it still looks amazing

The inscription you can read but it puzzled me to read the died the same day until I read the died of the Plague


I doubt the seats are Tudor either

 
I noticed this panel in one of the south aisle windows by the pulpit it looks more Tudor than Victorian 


Apart from these two lancet windows there was little stained glass in the church which I though surprising


I was not sure of the font age but it seems it is 15th century 

The roof of the chancel with it's hammer beams with angels on the end of each

The nave roof has beams

 
The collage shows the corbels from the chancel and the carvings on the nave beams

Walk along the nave aisle and you cannot help notice the tombs along the floor some readable other worn with age

A screen separate off the west end doorways with a glass panel showing the bell ropes

and a couple of prayer panels built in, the right hand one hinting that this was once a catholic church or the panel came from one

I'll finish with this simple memorial in the chancel 

Linked on Imparting Grace

Till next time take car and do have a peaceful weekend


16 comments:

  1. You gave us an excellent tour of this fine old church with its many features of interest. I'm particularly taken with the Blacknall memorial.

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    1. That is one of it's nice features, I love how it has lasted so well.

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  2. glad to be with you all again. i finally have another church to share with you church link up friends. take care and have a great start of your new week. ( ;

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  3. I also loved the John Blacknall and his wife art. Very charming.

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  4. An interesting church and I'm glad they left some of the Medieval bits when it was modernized back in Victorian times. Some lovely carvings and of course, the monument to John Blacknall and his wife is special. I wondered about them dieing on the same day, but of course, the Plague was a brutal disease.

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    1. I'm always pleased to find churches with some of the original church there. The Plague touched ever where and around here was as bad as anywhere else. I think they found plague bodies in Oxford a few years ago

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  5. I don't blame you for taking the opportunity to see this fabulous church! These are great photos and I enjoyed the history of the place.

    Thanks for sharing your link at My Corner of the World this week!

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  6. The River Stert runs under the nave, north to south, and was the boundary between the town and the Abbey of St Mary. St Nic's was the church of the Abbey servants so is a bridge between the sacred and the secular. That's why it was spared when King Henry VIII demolished the Abbey in 1538.

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    1. Never knew that but I did check the OS map and found the river which runs underground from Withington Close. I intend to go back for some photos of where the abbey used to be so I will check out where it disappears and enters the Thames. Thanks for information

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  7. Such beautiful buildings - Thanks for sharing and for linking up with #MySundaySnapshot.

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