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