St Mary & St Nicholas Compton

The correct name is Parish of St May& St Nicholas Compton. A place I visited when on the search for remnants of the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway. Compton had a station which was near the Church across a field, so who am I to pas one by when the door is open.

The church sign prominent beside the road

 How you see the church looking up the footpath

The belltower which as you see is flint faced and on the right  the chancel end of the church with buttress and small windows

 The north side of the Church from across the churchyard

As ever on most English churches you find a blocked doorway which is where the peasants used to come through. The main entrance is through the porch

Inside you find arches and pews

A chapel is in the north aisle through the arches. The  nave &chancel has some wonderful floor times

 View through the chancel arch to the nave

 The photo could be better as I did not use a tripod
like I do now but shows the altar and stained glass windows you saw in a previous photo of the outside

The back of the Altar

Turning round you can look down the nave where you can see a wonderful carved wood pulpit

 I have not looked up the lady but she looks like she was in the OSS

Here are a few of the stained glass windows you can see in the church

They are all quite beautiful

Never found out how old this trunk was but I suspect 15 or1600

Inscription painted on the wall

 The church font & cover

This was an exhibition about a a new Lych gate that was to be built.
Since visiting the Church a New Lych gate has been built, I will get a photos when I am over that way.

Surprisingly considering the size of the churchyard there were not that many graves

Though there were some nice memorials

This I think was the memorials for the cremations which looks like it has seen better days, mind you it was February

     

Inspired Sunday                              

Holy Trinity Ardington

The church itself dates back from the early 13th century with additions during the 14 & 15th centurys. More aterations were done in the 19th century with a chapel spire & organ added.
Though I had been to this village before it was the first time I had seen or been to the church and I was told some of the history buy a lady who was cleaning.

Thie view you have coming up the road to the church, the building you see in front is the police station.

 The Holy Trinity Church with path leading to it

Looks like a preaching cross but more like a memorial of some kind.

Looking to the right of the church you can see the churchyard

A view down the nave of the church with the Virnon chapel over on the right

These are a couple of the stained glass windows you can see in the Nave

Had to take this photo of the fon and cover, the pully which would have lifted off the cover was not fit for use any more so was removed and this trolly made to remove it. The cover is 19th century and the font is 14th century. This is one of the biggst covers I have seen since the one at Ewelme

Walking down the nave you see this beautiful carved pulpit which is17 century with a 19th century cover

On the end on some of the pews are carved figures

Here we go through the chancell arch to the chancel

This iis where you really need to look up at the ceiling and teh amazing painting

Take a moment to look back to the arch and on the right you see the organ built in 1886

 The altar though I confess I forgot to take a photo of the chancel window

The altar backdrop painting

as always you will find a wonderful flower display, these are in memory of Terry Biddlecombe who was race horse trainer nearby. The flowers were froma  memorial service three weeks previous

The churchwardens chest dating back to 1638 given by a

 Robert Freetwell

The Village War Memorial

More superb looking windows, the one on the left is an old doorway.

Love this staff

More superb memorials. The statue on the right is called the kneeling lady and made by Edward Bailey who designed Nelsons Column in Trafalgar Square.

Heading back out to the churchyard on of the impressive monuments is this reclining soldier and angels

There are also a couple of war graves nearby

The poppy wreath was by the reclinig soldier so and when I looked at it I noticed it was from the Victoria Cross society and looking at the grave I could not see a mention of a VC till I looked at this grave to /Robert James Loyd-Lindsay










There are other nice memorials round nearby

Along with another wargrave

Most of the graves a quite old and in various states

The churchyard is well kept with none left to grow wild that I could see of like at other churchyards localy

These memorials are built in the side of the porch

The spire & belltower

It is always nice to see nowdrops in a churchyard. Have a peaceful Sunday.
Taking part in Taphophile Tragics & Cemetery Sunday
Inspired Sunday