Lewknor Church

This was a second visit to St Margaret's Church in Lewknor. The first time was a quick look and a few photos as I had not come prepared with a tripod and was in a hurry. The memorials I had seen made a return visit a must.

St Margaret's Church Leknor

As you walk in the church from the porch you are greeted with a view of this chapel

On your right you can see this wonderful old carved stone font.

Walk into the nave and look to the back and you can see a wooden screen leading to the bell ropes with a superb stained glass window above.

Here we look along the nave towards the Chancel. Taking this taxed me and I had to play with the exposure to show the detail.

Going to the chancel you will find has some wonderful memorials

The altar and chancel window

The superb looking chancel window you can see in St Margaret's Church
 Just before you get to the chancel you will find a a chapel off to the side  where if you open the doors and go in you will see this

magnificent memorial which is on a vault holding the remains of the reverend Sir Edward
Repps
Jodrell and his wife and some other members of the family

look round the chapel and you can see other memorials to the family as well.

The memorials are mostly written in Latin and as I can't read it I could not tell you what it says.

These are the wrought iron gates which are inside the chapel and outside you can see this carved pulpit with an irond banded trunk at it's base.

This little bot of historical local interest can be seen on the iron bound chest in the photo of the pulpit and tells of Adrian Scrope who was off this parish and executed in 1660

Head back in the chancel and you can see some more great memorials and some interesting tombs 

Memorial to Ronald Owen Hall
Bishop of Hong Kong

The wall memorials are quite stunning along with the stained glass windows

A name I think most people will recognise

This tomb effigy was hidden behind one of the choir stalls

You can see these tomb effigies as you walk in the chancel 

the carving and detail on them is superb.

They look as though they were painted at some stage

The carvings can be seen at the feet of on one of the tombs

though i could not be sure if they were off the tomb

What you cant see on the tombs

are these panels which are hidden behind the choir stall

along with this carving.
 

The organ in the nave is not over large like others I have seen and if you look up in the chancel ceiling you can see some great head stops

This one I found quite interesting

On the nave wall you will see the village memorial to the dead from the first war

Going outside much of the churchyard is overgrown which seems to be the norm in a lot of churchyards

If it is like our local churchyard it is to encourage wildlife 

Parts though are still free of growth though ivy still has its way

Round the north side of the churchyard it is well covered in grass

loosing some of the headstones almost from view.





 

The north side of St Margaret's Church 

David Watt's grave

Have a peaceful Sunday

St Botoph Swyncome

 Walk along the Ridgeway path through Oxfordshire and you will pass through a small place called Swyncome and pass by a small 11th century church called St Botoph

The church is set back off a country road beside Swyncome House.

I came here to find a war grave I had heard about but was taken back by the setting the church was in.

The churchyard did have a lot of headstones in it which looked old. People had just come out of the church after the Sunday service so I took the opportunity to go inside for some photos.

On entering the church you will be greeted with this view 

Going through the rood screen you will see the Chancel

Looking back from the rood screen along the nave.

Here you can see the curved wall and ceiling which are painted.

You can see some stunning stained glass widows and memorials to past rectors of the church.

A superb carving on one of the choir stalls in the chancel

and if you look by the window nearby you can see a photo of the church before the rood screen was built.

Back in the nave I was shown this window which was in memory of  Alfred Taylor and his wife Lizzie

If you look at the back wall of the nave, high up you can see a window with some very old stained glass in.

You can see the stone font at the back and displays of flowers as well

In the porch you can see this bequeath and plaque.

Outside the churchyard is well kept

With the odd headstone slowly sinking out of site 

Some headstones are being snagged by ivy

some getting covered in lichen

You can even find some old ones in very good condition

Some others lost in ivy

But it's worth a wander round looking a the inscriptions.

The headstone I came to visit is to Sergeant J.H.Barnett buried at St Botolph Swyncome.  He was at 19 OTU (operational training unit) RAF Kinloss. The OTUs were the places that men went to after they had qualified in there particular category, pilot, navigator, wireless operator/air gunner, to form up into crews before they went operational to a particular squadron. Jack was the rear gunner of A/W Whitley V serial no. AD710 piloted by Flight Sergeant J E Williams DFM. They took off from Kinloss on a night exercise and flew into a violent electrical storm and it is believed that the aircraft was struck by lightning. Two members of the crew managed to bale out before the aircraft smashed into the ground near Dalcross, Inverness-shire at 00.55. The pilot and other four members of the crew including Jack, perished. His body was returned to Swyncombe for burial. 

 RIP. His name is listed on the Memorial on Cooley Green not far away.

Since writing this post I have been given some more information about Sergeant J.H.Barnett who is buried near the East end of the church, seems the information I read was wrong. I have updated this. My Thanks to Mike Willoughby for the info

Two Churches

Back in 2010 I happened to be in Northamptonshire  with my wife who was at a training day with her dog. I took the opportunity to go for a walk round the area so I headed off to Pitsford where there was a reservoir I wanted to visit. On the way I passed a church called All Saints I could not pass it off without looking round the place.

Now who could pass off a church like this

Walking in the gate you can see the churchyard

 Turning to the right you see the village War Memorial

and a view of the church from the chancel end

Walking round the north side of the churchyard you can see many older graves

and more wonderful views of the church

You can see this beautiful praying angel at the west end of the churchyard

The west end  showing the bell tower

 The porch leading to the church, unfortunately the door wa locked when I tried it.

On the ground t looks like part of the church has fallen off.

Looking across the south side of the churchyard

This was the first time I saw what I thought were small headstones but turned out to be footstones.

 Looking back at the church with the War Memorial

Later after lunchI went to Boughton where I came across St Johns Church

The church can be seen here up the street

It also is on the roadside

On the back of the church you can find these memorials

Round the side you can find the churchyard though there are few graves to see.

Looking across the chancel end of the church

Where you can see some of the older headstones. St Johns church was built to replace the one that was abandoned a few miles away, you can read about it here  I hope you have enjoyed my walk.