My review of 2025 where like other years I go through the churches I have visited during the year which is one where I visited more than 50. A year where I managed to finish visiting the Churches in the Book Oxfordshires Best Churches, finished visiting all the churches in the Clerics Trail along a few more, plus revisited a few churches I had been to before, the reason for this is because while writing up an article on Geograph on Oxfordshire Best Churches I noticed some were not quiet as good as now so I went back for new ones. The question is where to go next? I still have the rest of the churches in Oxfordshire to visit and a few more in Wales and Hereford.
January
January usually starts with some of the churches I visited from the previous year and had not yet written up into a blog the first was
The Holy Trinity Finstock, which I did while taking out a new car for a test drive from the dealer I had taken my car in for a service to. Sadly the church was not open
St Edburg Bicester was next and took up two blogs. It was a church I had wanted to see for a few years and finally took the plunge in going along, not the best to get to due to heavy traffic in the town but I did get a parking place by the war memorial in the churchyard. I was also invited to go back and be shown around which I might take up sometime
Midweek I did an update on what I was up to this year and have been doing the odd update every so often
February
The first church was the second part of St Edburg
Followed by St Mary the Virgin Adderbury this was the first church I visited in 2025 and where I managed to drop my new camera, lucky it did not seem to suffer any harm. The church was amazing to look around
St Mary Bloxham was the next church on the list with it's tall spire and cavernous interior
The last church of the month was St Peter-ad-Vincuna in South Newington a must to see the with It's medieval wall art and stained glass remnants
March
St Mary the Virgin Broughton came next and was one I had to make arrangements to visit due to it being locked, though when I got there it was open as the parishioners were cleaning the church
I was lucky with St Michael at Barford St Michael as when I went in the door I found due to some church representatives disusing moving an organ, normally it was open on Wednesday. If you find it locked the porch is worth looking at with it's beak head carvings
St Michael Archangel is a church I pass when going to or caravan in Wales, this time I stopped off for a look only to find the church locked. I would need to open if I were to return
St Cadoc Raglan was along the road home and after visiting the nearby castle years ago I wanted to stop off at the church. It turned out to be an interesting church to look around. I ended going back for a second visit after missing something I wanted to see
St Michal & All Angels Alkerton I managed to visit will my son was at Banbury Hospital having a scan it was worth the effort visiting
April
While driving past St Mary Banbury I noticed it was open so asked my son after picking him up him he minded visiting he was ok with this and I say a most stunning interior of a church I had wanted to see for a long time
St John the Baptist Hornton was visited a week or so later as I decided to visit the rest of the churches around Banbury
St Ethelreda Hollrley was not that far from the last church and that was next and were I was overjoyed to see a rood loft
St Peter Hanwell was visited on another week and turned out to be an interesting church to look around with the carvings on the freeze over the chancel
May
I started this month with St Mary the Virgin Cropredy where the famous music festival is held
I was back in Wales the following week at St Mattew Llandefalle where I saw a rather nice rood screen
I was back on the Oxfordshires best churches trail the next week in an effort to finish visiting them and went to St Mary the Virgin Chipping Norton it was a vast church to look around and well worth visiting
From there I went to St Michael & All Angeles Great Tew which was on an estate and had some nice Norman features to see and a modern tomb effigy
St Philip Little Rollright was the visited on another week as I finished off the churches in the west of Oxfordshire this was another church on an estate
I gave a midweek update next about what I would be doing with my blog
June
St Andrew Great Rollright came next with it's beautiful carved Tympanum in the porch
The next church was St Peter Hook Norton which had a beautiful carved Norman font to see.
St Mary the Virgin Oxford is a church I would recommend visiting it is stunning to see inside
St Michael at the North Gate was the last of the churches I could see in side in my visits of the churches in the Book Oxfordshires Best Churches, I returned in November to visit the tower which was closed on my fist visit
That concludes the first part of my review for 2025 part 2 will be next week
Till Next time May I wish you all a peaceful week
