St Mary Ipsden

 

I stopped off here after looking for a nearby place. St Mary Ipsden is a church I have written about before back in 2013but I cannot say I was happy with all the photos so I thought I would write another blog on the church

Some history on the church from Wikipedia 

"The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin was built late in the 12th century as a chapelry of North Stoke. It is said to have been the replacement for an earlier church that fell into disrepair in that century. The north aisle of the present church was built in the 12th century and retains a Norman window. The chancel arch is 13th century and the present south doorway is 14th century. There had been a south aisle but this has been lost and its arcade blocked up. Perpendicular Gothic windows occupy the south wall of the nave where the arcade had been. The chancel east window is also Perpendicular Gothic. The south porch was added in 1634 and the belfry in the 19th century. It is of five bays and built of red brick with a pattern of blue bricks.

St. Mary the Virgin parish is now a member of The Langtree Team Ministry: a benefice that also includes the parishes of Checkendon, North Stoke, Stoke Row, Whitchurch-on-Thames and Woodcote. The date of the vicarage has been disputed: the former Department of the Environment (DoE) dated it to 1643 but the architectural historians Jennifer Sherwood and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner considered 1700 to be more likely."

Looking down the path after going through the gate

 Moving over to the west of the churchyard 

North side view

East end of the church with the north aisle

Blocked earlier priest door

Headstones over on the east side of the path

West side

Looking down the north east side

Couple of tombs

Couple of old forgotten fenced family graves

Two Commonwealth War Graves belonging to Signalman E.C.Slones and Private Harry House

Looking down the north side of the churchyard

Older head and footstones

Inside the porch

headstop carvings and poppy display

Looking down the nave

The chancel arch is a narrow one

but the chancel opens up

Altar & east window

rather nicely quilted altar covering

The east window

Looking back to the chancel arch

The nave from the arch

The organ up on the balcony

The pulpit is a bit minimalist

View from the pulpit

Stained glass window by the pulpit

This stained glass window is beside the font

The font which looks like it is Victorian to me

The lancet windows in the church

More modern one in the north aisle at the west end

Different lighting in the church

British legion flag beside the Rolls of Honor

The Rolls of Honor show the man who died in both wars

The arches leading to the north aisle

The north aisle

There is an altar in the north aisle

Around the you can see the some of the decorations from the middle ages

Memorials in the floor

There are even more on the walls around the church

Lectern with bible on it

Looking up at the organ

The organ from the balcony, it's a tight squeeze fro the organist

But it is worth going up to look down into the church

I will leave you with this floral display.This will not be the last revisit of a church this year as I hope to go to a few more one of them is in this parish a few miles away.

Till next time I wish you all a wonderful weekend

St Mary Cogges

 

Cogges is a village near Witney and has become more of a suburb to the town getting to the place is not that simple, you can drive off the A40 one way but not the other and driving from Witney sends you around a ring road on my first attempt I gave up and went home This time I went a different route to find the place the church was easy as it is signposted park up nearby and you walk to the church through a Lychgate

"St Mary's parish church had been established by the second half of the 11th century. The walls of the nave are Romanesque and may be either late Saxon or early Norman. The south aisle was added late in the 12th century, but the two arches of the arcade between the nave and south aisle were rebuilt in the 13th century. The chancel and chancel arch were enlarged and rebuilt in the middle of the 13th century. In about 1340 the north chapel was added, linked with the chancel by an arcade of two bays and with the 14th century effigy of a lady under one of the arches. The Decorated Gothic north aisle and adjoining bell tower were built in about 1350.

The present east window of the chancel is also Decorated Gothic. The tower's upper stages are octagonal, possibly in reference to a style of church towers in Normandy whence the monks from Fécamp would have originated. In the 15th century a Perpendicular Gothic clerestory was added to the nave, and the roofs of the nave, aisles and chancel were all rebuilt in the shallow-pitched late-medieval manner. Late in the 15th century the Perpendicular Gothic west window of the nave was inserted. The windows of the north chapel were decorated with stained glass depicting the heraldry of the de Grey family. During the English Civil War in the 17th century the church was damaged and the heraldic glass was destroyed."

 

 The lychgate between what is the church office and boundary wall

 Inside you can see this plaque to Queen Victoria fro 60 years on the throne

Walking up through the churchyard you get a view of the east end of the church

 

East end from across the churchyard

 

 

Looking along the north side

 

The tower off to the north west of the church

 

West end view with the tower to the north side

 

The tower, the door on the side looks like it is access to the bell loft

 West view using my phone on wide

 

Headstops and blocked doorway

 

 

East end looking up the path with the churchyard either side

 

 

Churchyard with the back of the church office

 

South of  the church the older headstones

 

 

Tombs and headstone

 More tombs and headstones beside the church

 

 

Collage showing various headstones, the cross to the right is huge when you see it

 

South west  churchyard

 

South side showing some family graves

 

Looking north across the east end of the church
 

 

Various old headstone leaning up against a wall at the west end of the church

 

Tomb chests beside the path south of the church

 The porch taking you in the church

 

 

The chancel at least this is what it used to be, the church has been reordered removing the old altar, this I feel is a shame as to me the church lost it charm. Services are now held with the altar at the west end

 

Going to the back of the church looking down the nave

 

The chancel arch

 

East window with cross below

 

 

The east window

Looking back down the church towards the new altar. This is not the first church I have come across where they worship towards the west end

 

 

Razed platform with the new altar
 

 

Tomb with effigy on top

The tomb stands between the chancel and north aisle

Collage of the effigy

 

Carvings around the outside of the tomb

 

Tomb slab in the floor of the church

North aisle with the entrance to the tower blocked by a screen

Looking up the north aisle to the chapel at the end

South aisle

North aisle chapel

Blake memorial in the north aisle

Busts of the Blake family members

Coat of arms on the top of the memorial

Roof corbel carving

The north aisle has some beautiful carvings around the roof line of the church

Which is one of the outstanding features of the church

Collage of the rood corbel carvings

Roof corbel carving

Looking through the arches to the north aisle

Various memorials in the church

Couple of bequests in the church

The stained glass window in the chancel

One of the other stained glass windows

East window in the north aisle chapel

This beautiful stained glass is in the north aisle chapel

Lancet window

Features in the church

Font in the south aisle

Roll of honor in the south aisle behind the font

 

Impressive memorial.

 

 On my way out I met this friendly feline 

Till next time I wish you all a wonderful weekend