Church Explorer update

 

I thought I might update my blog and how I go about finding the churches I visit as I notice that I have posted 591 blogs since I started back in 2012, mind you a fare number of them are cemeteries and blogs on Church groups

You may have noticed that I have been concentrating on visiting Churches in the book Oxfordshires best Churches from which I have managed to visit most, I have now got 11 left to visit in the north of Oxfordshire. I have not included the Oxford churches which I will do once I have gone to the others, there are only a few in Oxford anyway and easy to get to by train. This year I hope to revisit a few of the previous churches in the blog as I feel I can get better photos now. I also have noticed that there are things I have missed in some of the churches like the ceiling in the lady chapel at St Helens Abingdon.

If you wondered what I meant by finding the churches on the OS Maps well that is the Ordnance Survey maps for the UK, I have them on my laptop so look at them when planning a visit. Yes I use Google as well as I keep a map with a record of the churches visited on it. 

The book you see by Richard Wheeler is what I use for reference and reading about the churches I am visiting I would say it is the best place to start if you are thinking of visiting some churches in Oxfordshire Simon Jenkins who quoted at the bottom has also written a book called England's Thousand Best Churches 

The book goes into the best churches to visit in all of  England's Counties. He is a journalist who writes in one of the tabloids. If you visited all the churches it would take around tree years at one a day. I dare say he had researchers doing all this plus the photos came from a magazine. I'm not saying he did not visit any I just have my doubts all of them. There is no reason Richard could not have visited the ones in Oxfordshire which is where I think he lives. I am slowly working my way through the book .

There are a couple or other reference books I use 

Rices Church Primer, an excellent book with plenty of drawings of of parts of the church so when you visit you know what you are looking for, this and the previous book were the first books I got from my wife one Christmas. 

Last is Churches of Oxfordshire,

This is a paperback which I think was done with the help of Oxfordshire Historic Trust I have had a look though it but I feel it is let down by some very dark photos but that aside a good book to use if  you are going to visit some of the churches as it will go in your bag. What I will say is that reading the book is one thing and looking at the photos in them but they do not show you what the church is like, in my blog I try to show you what the church is like and hopefully the items of interest to see.

The churches I have visited are all with in a 30 mile radius of Oxford, I live about half an hour south so you can see why it takes me over an hour to get to the ones I am visiting now.

I hope that has given you a bit of an insight as to how I go about visiting the churches you read about

 

St Edburg Bicester

 

 This week the Church Explorer takes you to St Edburg Bicester. This is one church that I have been wanting to visit for a while but left it because it was in a busy shopping town. When I found it where I could park I made the effort to go along to see this amazing church which is one of the churches in the book Oxfordshires Best Churches. I'm going to show this church over two weeks as I feel I cannot do it justice in one post so you will be seeing the inside next week

History I copied form Wickipedia but if you click on the links you can find out more about the church  St. Edburg’s Church in Bicester was founded as a minster, perhaps in the mid 7th century after St. Birinus converted Cynegils, King of Wessex, following their meeting near Blewbury. The site was just east of the old Roman road between Dorchester and Towcester that passed through the former Roman town at Alchester. The earliest church was probably a timber structure serving the inhabitants of the growing Saxon settlements on either side of the river Bure, and as a mission centre for the surrounding countryside. Archaeological excavations at Procter's Yard identified the ecclesiastical enclosure boundary, and a large cemetery of Saxon graves suggesting a much larger churchyard has been excavated on the site of the Catholic Church car park almost opposite St. Edburg's.

St Edburg from the entrance to the churchyard

The south side

Going along to the south east end

East end with south and north aisles with my shadow

 

View of the north side looking west from the path

 

The tower

Tower window and door

This is the south doorway

 

Chest tomb in the corner of the south aisle and chancel

 

Porch and north door, there also looks like there is a room over the porch

Churchyard on the north side of the church

West of the tower is a wall which is lined with old headstones and one of the reasons I could not get a complete view of the tower from that side

Churchyard south of the church

Some old headstones beside the wall

Coffin slab surrounded by old headstones

The north side churchyard looking west

The east end of the churchyard

South boundary wall with older headstones

South of the church from the path takes you to Bicester cemetery next door. This part is owned and and  looked after by the town council.

Which is where you see the wildlife scurrying around

Bicester cemetery which is next door to St Edburg's churchyard

More recent headstones can be seen dating to Victorian times

The headstones are packed in

It's full of squirrels running around

I must admit you could spend a long time walking around it

The cemetery is well laid out and kept tidy

It also has this chapel in it which was locked when I walked past

The commonwealth war grave of Second Lieutenant H.J.Lamb RAF

Looking south down the cemetery

Towards the far end more recent graves

This is where you will find a lot of commonwealth war graves

Most are from WWII like these who all died the same day so I suspect were the crew of one plane

These graves are from a couple of different decades the two at the top from 1942, the lower half from 6th July 1965. They died in the Little Baldon air crash  there is a memorial in St Lawrence Toot Baldon

There are not only RAF some are more recent, two graves on the end the personnel were in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps who died in 1968 and 1970

The cemetery is huge

Over the fence is another part which I did not have the time to look around

I will leave you with this photo I took of a squirrel sat on the base of a cross in the cemetery. I will show the inside of the church next week.

Till Next time May I wish you all a peaceful week

Holy Trinity Finstock

 

This week the Church Explorer visits the Holy Trinity Finstock which was one church I did not realise was there till I found it on the benefice website then looked at the maps. I had to take my car to the garage for some work so blagged a car off them for an hour. On getting to the church it was locked with a note telling people that they try to have the church open but sorry if you found it locked, Just my luck. Still there was some interesting things to see in the churchyard

"Holy Trinity Church of England parish church is a Gothic Revival building of 1841. Its ornate chancel was added in 1905 and its elaborate south window by the architect Morley Horder in 1929.

T. S. Eliot came to Finstock to be received into the Church of England. William Force Stead was a fellow American and came to England as an American consul but soon found that his real bents in life were literature and religion. He was ordained, became chaplain of Worcester College, Oxford and after meeting Eliot in 1923 (with whom he shared a love of cats) steadily drew him towards Anglicanism and agreed to baptise him.

He was then living in "a fine seventeenth century gabled house at Finstock", Finstock Manor, and invited Eliot to stay there to meet his godfathers, B. H. Streeter and Vere Somerset, before his baptism at Finstock on 29 June 1927. The novelist Barbara Pym lived at Finstock after her retirement and is buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity. The current (in 2021) Vicar, the Reverend Paul Mansell, arrived in February 2010; he was trained at Ripon College, Cuddesdon and ordained at Christ Church, Oxford."

The south side of the church, the tall trees from around the churchyard making the place darker

The north side as you come in with the churchyard

East end with graves

Looking from the north east

The north side, the chancel end is behind the trees

West end with bellcote, the door is the main entrance

South west view

One of the vestry

Leaf strewn churchyard by the west end

Looking further along to the south west side

Looking east south of the church

Collage of the headstones

The grave of Richard Dore and his family

This family vault made the visit a little more interesting 

It's not what you would expect in a country churchyard

Gated doors

Over to the right are I presume more family tombs

I'm not sure about the three headstones laid here though

The Du Cross family Vault

The church from the vault

Keep walking up the churchyard and you come to the new part

Which is bigger than you would expect

You can just see the church in the trees from the cemetery

The cemetery from the churcyard

Forgotten family plots, the ivy taking over now

Nearly covered this one

Cross and tomb

I will take my leave of you with this photo of the church with the sun lighting it up, If I get a chance I will try and revisit to get photos inside but I will make sure it is open first.

Till next time may I wish you all a peaceful week