St Mary & St John Cowley Road Oxford

 

 This church was sort of on my radar but the proximity of the church along a busy road in Oxford sort of put me off.  Thing is on this occasion I had made an appointment at what I thought was St James Church and after phoning found I had made it for this one but as the other church was a failure as far as going inside was concerned I drove down to St Mary & St James where I met up with the Vicar who kindly showed me around.  The church is relativity new being founded in around the 1850's. You can read a little bit about the church in the link.

Best view you can get of the church as it is mostly hidden by trees

This is the East end of the church with the church offices in the foreground 

Around the west end looking on the north side

North side of the church

This is the entrance off the Cowley road, if you go across the road the church is tree lined and you could miss it if you drove along the road

The bell tower and entrance porch

Tower and south side

Churchyard which is mostly given over to nature

But looking through the cut grass all you can see are graves

There are an incredible amount of crosses in the churchyard

Quite a few laid down because they were unsafe

The churchyard is designated a commonwealth war cemetery and these are the headstones I could find

Some of the graves have sunk

other monuments are broken

I did like looking at the different crosses

This cast iron one of Albert Yates is beautiful condition

Unusual looking headstone

You cannot help but look at the crosses

The crosses with crucified Jesus on them

More in the long grass

 

Garden of remembrance 

This headstone is to the memory of the Sisters of the Holy Childhood

 

 Near the porch the Benson memorial stands out, Fr Benson founded the church

I dispensed with a view down the church and did a panoramic

A rood across the chancel arch

I wish I had brought my Canon R6 but used my iphone which is not so good zooming in low light

The chancel

The old altar below the east window with a beautiful scree behind

The east window

South aisle

I could not get a good shot of this Roll of honour

At the west end of the church is the organ and underneath looks like the atrium from the entrance

The pulpit

looking down into the nave

The font

Madonna & Child

North door

Stations of the cross

Another view of the east window

The top detail of the east window

 

I must admit the church has a lot of really nice stained glass to view, from the single windows

 To  multi pained windows, they are just beautiful

 

I will leave you with another view of this beautiful church

Till next time have a peaceful weekend