St Mary Upper Hayford

 

My only thoughts on Upper Hayford was that their used to be a huge USAF airbase there, it's a place I had not been any where near even though I had heard of the place. Once it would have been full of airplane noise, now it is a quiet village again and St Mary's church was there.

 

The village had a church by AD 1074. Inside the current Church of England parish church of St Mary is a 14th-century recumbent effigy of a priest in a 14th-century arched recess in the chancel. The church may have been rebuilt in the latter part of the 15th century, but only the Perpendicular Gothic west tower survives from that time.

Major repairs to the roof and south aisle were made in 1668 and 1769, but by the 1860s the nave and chancel were in a poor condition again. In 1865 the church was demolished except for the west tower. A new church, designed by the architect Thomas Talbot Bury in a Gothic Revival interpretation of Perpendicular Gothic, was built in its place and completed in 1867.

This Victorian building has very regular coursed masonry, which departs conspicuously from the traditional Mediæval rubble masonry of the tower and, presumably, the demolished parts of the previous church. Bury preserved only a handful of features from the Mediæval church: a Perpendicular Gothic window in the north wall of the chancel, a piscina, a tomb recess and a 14th-century effigy of a priest. St Mary's is a Grade II* listed building.

The tower has three bells, the oldest of which is the tenor bell cast in 1624 by Richard I Purdue, who had foundries in places including Glastonbury and Stoford in Somerset. Mears & Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the second bell in 1866 and the treble bell in 1946. St Mary's has also a Sanctus bell of unknown date.

St Mary's parsonage was designed by William Wilkinson and built in 1869.

St Mary's parish is now part of the Cherwell Valley Benefice, along with the parishes of Ardley, Fritwell, Lower Heyford, Somerton and Souldern.

^{The east end of the church from the roadside}

^{Entrance through the gate or over the stile}

Wide view of the south side of the church

^{Going around to look at the north side}

West view of the tower

The doorway in the tower base

The churchyard, these are the only two graves I could see and thought that was it till I was leaving the church and looked over the road and spotted the top of this war memorial

The village war memorial

Graves here are more recent then in the churchyard

Looking west

North west

South east where you can see commonwealth war graves

These memorials can be seen by the commonwealth war graves the left hand one to two airmen killed when their plane crashed Oxford Mail the right ones to the RAF personnel 1940 - 45

The commonwealth war graves of RAF personnel

The church porch and tower

Inside looking down the nave

The chancel arch with metal and wood screen

Inside the chancel

Altar and east window

The east window looking quiet superb

Looking back down the nave

A tomb recess and a 14th-century effigy plus other items to see in the chancel

Pulpit behind the floral display

Looking down from the pulpit

Carving on the pillars

The chapel on the south side

Altar and screen behind

The screen is quite beautiful to see

North aisle looking at the organ

The organ at the end of the north aisle

Some of the tomb slabs in the floor that are readable

Dedication to the USAF personel at RAF Upper Hayford

Commemoration plaques to Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II

The font with poppy appeal

I will leave you with this view of the commonwealth war graves and memorial stone

Till next time may I wish you all a peaceful week