St Peter & Paul Aston Rowant Church

I visited this church while taking photos to show what the village like for Sharon from Strong Foundations who's relations came from the village unfortunately it was not open when I went so a return visit to the church was a must.  Before you scroll down you might want to get a coffee there are a lot of photo's

St Peter & St Paul can be found off Church lane

St Peter & St Paul.

From along Church lane

 The Village War memorial with the Malt House in the background.

The churchyard has many old graves 

Some insight and easy to see

Others becoming lost and overgrown.

At the back if you look over the wall you can see the old rectory.

Going inside you find the place is a gem.

With large plaques showing bequeaths to the parish poor

chests with the handbells  dated 1882

even the alcove has a flowers in

I will start in the nave here looking towards the chancel

which though simple has a wonderful stained glass window.

also in the chancel you can see the 12th Century tomb of a priest

Off to the side is the North Aisle which has a couple of tomb recesses

and where you can see this magnificent Memorial to Lady Cicill Hobbee who died in 1618

Quite stunning something I have not seen before.

 and at the East end of the aisle you can see some of the Medieval glass that remains

At the end you can see some steps half way up the wall, they would have gone to the floor once but came out in rood loft in the nave. You can still see where the floor joists connected to the chancel arch.

 This was to give people who were in the chapel a view of what was happening at the altar.

The church organ which is at the back of the chapel

The memorial to those who died in the wars

Memorials on the nave walls

 graves in the aisle floor 

some great kneeler's made by the WI

Looking out of the windows in the North Aisle shows the churchyard

I'll leave you with this view of the nave from the pulpit, hope you have enjoyed the look round St Peter & St Paul

War Memorials

Most places I have visited have a war Memorial to remember the dead of the two wars. Some villages have a small one others are quite elaborate but every year on remembrance day  people gather and remember those who were lost and lay poppy wreaths.  There were few villages that escaped and they are known as Thankful villages there were 52 in all and 14 of them were doubly thankful as they lost none in the second war either.

This one of a first world war soldier is in New Radnor Wales. Wales lost a lot of it's men in the first war.

Llandrindod Wells a lager market town has one as magnificen

Other villages in the UK tend to have a more simple memorials  like these at Harwell and Dorchester on Thames in Oxfordshire

 Garieston in Scotland has it's Memorial on he seafront

Reading which is now the County Town of Berkshire has two different memorials
The Lion is called the Maiwand Lion and is dedicated to men from the Berkshire Regiment who gave their lives at the Battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan  1880 The plain white one is dedicated to the dead of the two wars.

This is another memorial which is in Berinsfield near Dorchester in Oxfordshire which is dedicated to airmen from Mount Farm photo reconnaissance squadron which were based there in the second war.  

I will leave you with this one in Wallingford market place and will bring you another blog on war memorials at a later date.

The Dambuster

70 years ago this week on the night of the 16&17 of May one of the most daring raids on Germany took place on the Rhur Valley to breach the The Möhne and Edersee Dams. I had already done some work looking into the background of this raid in looking for the remains of a dam used in the development tests of the bouncing bomb at the Nant-Y-Gro.
Some of the photos I took there were used in Britian at War Magazine for the 70 anniversary edition featuring the raid.  By chance while talking with a guy at work I was told one of the men from the raid was buried at a local church nearby. I felt I had to visit and see the grave of one of the people who made history. What I found was a bit more of a surprise than I expected.

  St Michael & All Angels was in Clifton Hampden and I had visited it a few years ago.

I saw this grave of Peter A Standing who won the South Atlantic medal a few years before so this time looked around some more of the churchyard.

 

Looking around the churchyard it was not looking before I came across some commonwealth War Graves

Then to my surprise I came across

Major John Howard DSO 

Who is buried with his wife.

After looking round some more I finally found grave of David John Shannon DSO DFC RAAF 27.5.1922 - 8.4.1992  RAF 106 & 617 Squadron THE DAMBUSTERS.

I felt honored to have visited the graves of such men.

Beside his grave is that of is wife Ann

St Michael & All Saints is a beautiful churchyard with a view over the Thames. I will revisit and post some photos of the church inside which is just as superb.

Churchyards

My travels have taken me to may church's some large some small most have one thing in common, they have a churchyard where the parishioners are buried. In this blog I would like to share a few of them with you.

 St Peters Church in Piddington

This I would call the new churchyard which is next door to the old one at St Peters in Piddington.

Another St Peters, this one in Caversham near Reading

The place has many old graves  which are can be seen from the path or a short walk through the churchyard.

St Helen's in Berrick Salome is a pretty church with a churchyard to suit.

The graves are well laid out with old

And newer ones that are ell kept.























I'll leave you with these pictures from Eaton Hastings Church.

Looking towards what was the rectory, seems country vicars lived well years ago.

Ivy is a bane on gardens and destroys what it covers but it gives a certain beauty to headstones.  I hope you have enjoyed my churchyards, I'll look some more out another time.

Cholsey Churchyard

Over in the far right hand corner of Cholsey Churchyard not far from Agatha Christies grave you will find the grave of Alfred Shaw. Alfred was Station Master at the old Moulsford Station and would probably have lived with his wife in one of these houses

On the 21st February 1876 he was helping  load sheep on a wagon when one tried to escape. Alfred managed to stop it but ended up falling on top of it. He recovered ok and help load another 15 on the truck before going home for tea. After the last train had gone he retire and during the night his wife woke with  his soring and she told him to stop as it frightened her, next she heard a rattle in his throat and he died. At the inquest it was said that they think he died from internal injury  caused by the fall.

Moulsford station used to be here and the platforms would have been on the right of the photo and on the left where the two lines are near the old Hotel now a block of flats.

Alfred was 29 when he died and left his wife of 26 and two young children with no support. The inscription reads.
" Alfred Shaw of Manchester Late Station Master Moulsford GWR who died February 23rd 1878 age 29 Years  I will go to him but he shall not return to me"

Not far away near the church you will find the grave of Reverend Wyatt Cottle who fired the parish clerk for sacrilege and was then taken to court. The clerk was proved innocent but it ended up  in him going to the High court in London and being Granted a writ of mandamus to be given his old job back. The clerk ended up getting paid off with in effect 70 years wages. 

Cottle on the other hand was not trusted in the village after that and ended up himself being taken to court for non payment of work that had been done for him, he died on the 27th May 1832 age 77 being out lived by the clerk who died in 1845 age 70.

Near the church you can find the graves of the Hunt Family who were local landowners and farmers owning the Elms























The nice thing about the graves is that they have the footstones in place as well

Nearby you can see other graves with footstones which belong to the Larkcom family

In the north side of the church are more footstones though I must admit when I first saw them I though they were graves of children

The names mentioned in this blog can also be found in a new book called Crime & Calamity in Cholsey by Barrie Charles  which takes place between 1819 - 1919. If you wander round the churchyard you can find a lot of the graves of the people mentioned in the book.

Since writing this blog I the extension in the churchyard has opened and while looking around at some of the new graves I was surprised and upset to see this wooden cross. The name at first I made me think and the age was about right for who I thought it was. I asked one of the his friends and he confirmed it was who I thought it was, he had been killed in an RTA. Phil as I knew him used to be  a Scout leader and looked after the Cholsey cub pack when I knew him and also helped out. When our kids grew up he always asked after them when I saw him occasional. Phil worked as a bus driver taking children to and from. The school. On the day he died was on leave but the person who was supposed to drive did not turn in, Phil gave his day up to take the kids to school and it was while he was returning to the depot that a van cut across the road in front of him at a road junction and Phil's bus hit the van  and he was killed. I was very sad to hear this and even sadder I had not heard so I could attend his funeral. He will be missed by a lot of people.

Rest In Peace Phil