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