Hampstead Norreys Church

The church of St Mary the Virgin in Hampstead Norreys was a church I had on my list to visit for a while and still is. The photos you will see are external ones as I found when I got there a service was in progress. The weather was in my favor either being rather misty.

 St Mary the Virgin

A plaque on the wall of the churchyard  giving the heritage of the village and it's older name

The footpath leading to the church porch

Looking west up the churchyard

The west end were the bell tower and church clock can be found

Looking back up the churchyard it can be seen to be long with many old graves

 Looking back along it to the church gives an idea to the size

Over in he corner a couple of family graves can be seen.

Walk out of the churchyard and across a lane is the new cemetery.

 A quick look round shows a couple of war graves of RAF personnel though I could not say if they were from the old RAF base just outside the Village

 At the top of the cemetery is this seat in front of a Celtic cross

Even the cemetery has old graves and is on a hillside


















Heading back into the churchyard and past the bell tower to walk down the south side of the church

You can see a bricked up doorway used by the parishioners in days gone by

Further along I came across a family tomb made  from cast Iron

Shaped like a pyramid it is one of the more unusual ones I have seen.

It has been a while since I visited the place and a return is on the cards . 

Have a Peaceful Sunday.
Taking part in Taphophile tragics & Cemetery Sunday

2013 Review

For the last few years I have been doing a yearly round up of my favourite blogs of the year and for the first few I never thought about it. Earlier this year I did the first few blogs which is when I started in 2012 I will now do 2013 which was the first full year of this blog. Some of the blogs from this year I republished in later years for Inspired Sunday and if you follow my blog  from there you will find many on here you will not have seen before

January started with some short blogs the first was the Lost Boys which is a bit of a heartbreaking story. The next was called Tommy Sopwith about the person who was behind the famous WW1 biplane

As I was still in the doldrums about where to go with the blog I ran one of called Famous People

followed by Newtown Road cemetery which I still need to go back and visit properly.

 The month ended with A ruined Chapel which I might add is almost lost to view now.

February was  Killed By Enemy Action which was about my looking into a bombing raid on Reading which killed 40 odd people the saddest part was fining tow little girls were caught up in it

The next Month March was   Blewbury  & Angel Headstones .

April Began with and Cholsey churchyard followed by another about various Churchyards I had visited 

May saw me going to Clifton Hampden for a blog called the Dambuster   with another called Memorial Day

June started with a blog on War Memorials something I may well cover again. the next blog was a single photo of some headstones at Newbury I visited Aston Rowant  around that time to see a church for some one looking for a relative

July I traveled to  a place called Albury to a beautiful old church there

The next church was one I happen to pop into while going to Worcester Cathedral and was called,

St John in Bedwardine I never did get to see round the cathedral and hope to return again.

I Started into August with Two Churches which I stopped off at when I did a walk round of the area  

the next church to be written about was St Botoph a church not that far from where I live but a little off the beaten track 

My next offering was called a Few Churches which were ones I had visited but only took a few photos of. I have every intention of visiting them when I can and in fact you will find I visited one this year. The month ended with a blog on Wallingford Cemetery 

September saw me start off with Lewknor Church  which has a very nice memorial chapel in well worth stopping off to see if your nearby. 

The next blog saw me start off the Welsh churches I visit with St Marys Llanfredd

which I spotted when we drove past, since then I revisited to get photos of the inside

 October started with Glastonbury Cemetery a Victorian cemetery with looking at and still in use today. I followed that with a blog on another local church, St Mary Ipsden which is a beautiful little church worth going out of your way to see.

For some reason November seems to have more blogs than any other month starting with St Blaise 
which is beside Milton Manor in Oxfordshire

  My next church was West Challow Parish Church which was one of those gems you come across now and then  and I happen to see it when I went checking out an old disused canal nearby

As it was Remembrance day coming up I did a blog on Village War Memorials something you see in most English Villages & churches
North stoke was the next village I visited with St Mary the Virgin an old village church with medieval  wall paintings

The next church St Augustine East Hendred 
Is a church I stopped off at while looking around the village, at some time I will return for better photos
I ended the month with a visit to  Aston Upthorpe
 a village church sitting at the base of the old Berkshire Downs that may well date back to the times of King Alfred it was worth visiting

December was another church from the Astons called St Michaels
I was in Oxford for the next church and St Nicholas
which brought back memories because I attended a work mates funeral there many years ago
I visited Steventon and  St Michael & All Angels next another old church worth the effort of visiting
My last church or the year was St Thomas in Goring and I felt a fitting final church for the year

Well that was the review of 2013, I hope you enjoyed looking at them. Some I will try to revisit as I was not happy with the photos I took.

St Michael & All Angels Steventon

St Michael & All Angels in Steventon is a long way from what is the center of the village but I must say it is worth the effort of visiting. I was on a mission that day and had just visited Harwell church which I will post at another date. These photos were taken hand held and not with a tripod like  usually do so some may be a bit out of focus

 The church from the entrance gate

This is the north side of the church, you enter round the other side.

A few of the older headstones

and a preaching cross.

From the west end lookng across the churchyard

West end with the bell tower on the south side

Here you can see you enter through the door in the belltower

and on the buttresses you can see the remains of a couple of sundials 

 Interesting little memorial to

Thomas Stevens 

Thomas Lyford

1752

Inside you can see an old carved stone font and a wonderful looking chancel

The altar and chancel widow which is quite something

The organ is hidden behind a rood screen

Choir cassocks hanging on their pegs
and a list of benefactors

Think the poor were hungry if they only got bread once a year

Some of the wall memorials in the church

Memorial tiles in the floor

Considering the age of this grave it's in remarkable condition

These brasses are probably even older

These church pews are old if the graffiti is any thing to go by

I wonder who R:D L was and did  he get his ear clipped for his work. Have a great Sunday