St Mary the Virgin Purley on Thames

 

St Mary the Virgin- Purley. This is a return visit to the church to look around the inside which I might add was well worth it to see the font. The church is not far from the Thames at Purley. Some history of Wikipedia :-

" The parish church of St Mary was described as 'ancient' in a founding charter of Reading Abbey in 1121. It is believed it was burnt down in 1135 in The Anarchy and replaced by a Norman church around 1150. The new church was built on an excavated platform and graves dating from the 10th century or 11th century were discovered in 1982 only about a foot below the surface. This church was modified and added to in the 14th and 17th centuries and completely rebuilt in 1870 in the Gothic revivalist style by G E Street. A further major extension was added in 1983. The church is a Grade II* listed building."

 

The approach to the church along the path

 

 

The south side of the church

 

The brick tower 

The plaque here shows a date of 1626 so the brickwork would indicate it was from around then as well

North side view where various extensions have been done

From the south east, the building in the foreground new in comparison to the old shed that was there on my first visit

The south entrance

The outer gates locked

People use this entrance now

Churchyard is well kept and has some old tombs to see

Looking east along the south of the church

Then towards the west end

 

Looking from the east end towards the west end of the churchyard

North side of the church

Looking west on the north side, most headstones more recent

Going in the new entrance and into this new part which is used for services

It is quite a large space

 

The curtains separate the older part of the church

 

Here we look down the nave 

 

 Chancel arch with pulpit off to one side

 

Chancel with choir stalls either side

 

Altar & east window

 

Another view of the altar & east window, the altar being quite modern

East window

Looking back to the west end of the church

The pulpit which is Victorian, I'm told they would like to remove it but for the Victorian society interfiling, It's not ans nice as other pulpits I have seen

View from the pulpit, over to the right is a mobile altar used in the new part I showed

The west wall is covered in memorials

With quite a few more in the belfry along with commemoration plaques

The memorials are quite large so wealthy people bust have had the placed

There are some nice stained glass windows to see

These have saints on them

One side of the west wall is the roll of honour for WWI

The other side has a shorter one for WWII

Quite a few other memorials to see

To me the star was this font, it is one of the best ones I have come across  with what look like saxon carvings on it

There is one rather macabre looking memorial 

The lady's name is Anne, she was 20 when she died and from the look so did the infant she had

 

 

Though I see no mention of who the child was

One of the choir stalls

The altar cross

Changed lens to take some wide views of the church

Chancel

From behind the font

One as you would come in through the old door

 

 I will leave you with this photo of the stunning font 

Till next time I wish you all a good weekend

Hopefully I will have got to visit another church before my next blog