The Holy Rood

Today we are going to jump in the Tardis and go back in time to the 15th century to a church in a village called Woodeaton. Now I happened to be in Oxford again after looking at the map and spotting a couple of likely villages to Visit I looked them up on Wikipedia. Woodeaton was the first one I looked up and the page had photos from this church (which do not do it justice) so I was sold straight away so it was a must to go and visit. I have shown a lot of photos so I hope you enjoy my offering now go get a coffee, sit down and enjoy its quite long.

On getting to the village you see the church on the left through the trees. The building in the distance is the Manor School

I took this from the gate with a wide angle lens, hence the distortion.

A grass path leads through the churchyard

Taking you to this wonderful little porch

A clearer view of the church

and a view of the North side of the church

Not seen a clock like this in a while, as you can guess it was a late addition being as the tower was built in the 14th or 15th century and the clock added in the 1700's

Not far away you can see this preaching cross on the village green which is 13th century

How about this for a welcome as you walk in the porch

Anyway lets go in and go back in time. Walk through the door and this is what you see.

A stone font graces the back of the nave

with home made produce for sale

How about these pews complete with little doors to them.

The walls are paneled and lined with a kneelers which were made by a couple of local ladys.

How about this for a nave with chancel arch and rood screen on the right is a wonderful carved pulpit, though the screened area on the right has me puzzled

Through the rood screen takes you to the chancel

where you can see this simple but beautiful altar 

with a wonderful floral display

Turn round and you can see the  rood screed and choir pews

The pews have some wonderful carved ends on them

The rood screen is 15th or 16th century built into the 13th century chancel arch

Around the nave walls you can see these  heraldic hatchments

On the nave wall is a memorial to Trooper Albert Woodcock 

These memorials can be seen the nave  & chancel

If you look down you can see many of these memorials in the floor dating back to 1673

At the west end of the nave is this gallery which was locked off so I could not go up to get a photo from it

Turn round and look up at the chancel arch, either side are  heraldic hatchments and above you can see medieval wall paintings

Which can also be seen at the west end of the nave

You have to love the floral arrangements in a church

Outside take some time looking round the churchyard  and the church














Where you can see this sundial and if you look a long blocked up doorway

The south side by the porch are many old grave

And a few not so old

but it is worth the effort of spending some time in

The lichen clings to the stone after the words have gone while algae starts to cover another

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

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.