St Mary Lyford

A chance comment from a Manager at work brought me to this church for a visit, I had not heard of the place until then. The Village had some interesting history as does the church.
"The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin was built as a chapelry of Hanney in the first half of the 13th century. There is a Mass dial scratched on the south wall. The wooden bell-turret was added in the 15th century, has a scissor-braced timber frame and three bells. The Perpendicular Gothic clerestory was added either at the same time or early in the 16th century. The church was restored in 1875 under the direction of the Gothic revival architect Ewan Christian. It is a Grade II* listed building.
St Mary's parish is now part of the United Benefice of Cherbury with Gainfield"

The path leading up to the church

Better view of the church from the churchyard

Going around the North side

The East end and West end with Bellcote

The cross on the church below the bellcote

Across the wall

The porch and entrance door

View along the nave

The Chance arch and inside the chancel

Looking out of the chancel to the bellcote support at the back

Simple altar adornments

The cross is in memory

Right the pulpit

View of the church from thepulpit

The church font

Which you can see is covered in Graffiti

Some of the windows in the chancel

Choir stalls

Opposite side with light streaming through the windows

Spotted this little angel in a Squint or hagioscope

The huge bellcote support and church organ

The war memorial for the village of Lyford

On 8 April 1945 an Avro Lancaster B.I Special bomber aircraft, HK788 of No. 9 Squadron RAF based at Bardney in Lincolnshire, had taken part in a raid on a benzole factory in mainland Europe. On its return flight the plane caught fire and crashed in a field barely 400 yards (370 m) south of the parish church and Manor Farm.

All seven aircrew were killed. Six were members of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. The seventh was a warrant officer from the Royal Canadian Air Force. All are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves section of Botley Cemetery on the outskirts of Oxford.

In October 2008 the widow of one of the crew provided a plaque commemorating the seven dead. It was installed in St Mary the Virgin parish church, where the actor Richard Briers attended the ceremony and read Noël Coward's poem Lie in the Dark and Listen

Part of the Lancaster that was found sits on top of the memorial

Above the royal coat of arms from 1787

Couple of shots of the bellcote support and a chandalear

Sunlight shins through the windows

Outside in the churchyard you can see the place is kept neat & tidy

with headstones and tombs kept clear of grass

Near the south side of the church

Over in in corner of the churchyard

Above a group of headstones belonging to one family

Right a couple more recent headstones

Three of the older tombs in the churchyard

Nathan William Coe of the Berkshire Yeomanry

Above the grave of a young person

Right a family plot

The blocked off North door and the windows in the chancel

Above a mass sundial which
 would tell you the time of the next service

The walls are covered in these crosses. I have come across them before but not in the numbers I saw on this church

One of the reasons could be that Edmund Campion was captured at nearby Lyford Manor, Pilgrims may well have visited the church and marked the cross on the walls of the church

I feel the post is unfinished with out showing the last resting place of the Lancaster crew so I  visited  Botley Commonwealth War Cemetery to find the Bomber Crews graves. You can find them in a row buried beside each other.

Have a Happy Weekend

St Luke Garford

St Luke's Chapel was never on my  list to visit mainly because I never realised it existed, fact was the church I went to visit only came about because of a comment some one mentioned to me and after looking at my map I noticed this chapel and as it was not far away I went off to visit it as well. Some history from Wikipedia
"Since at least the 13th century, Garford has been part of the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Marcham.The Church of England chapel of Saint Luke dates from the 13th century, but was largely rebuilt in 1880 by Gothic Revival architect Edwin Dolby. The east window of the chancel is a pair of 13th-century lancets and the south doorway of the nave is also largely 13th century. There is a 14th- or 15th-century window in the south wall of the nave, and a 16th- or 17th-century window on the south side of the chancel. The chapel's other windows are largely Victorian. The ancient windows seem to occupy roughly the same positions in the rebuilt chapel as they did in the original building. There is a wooden bell-turret with one bell."
The chapel is situated around the back of a farm and the only way to get to it is by a path aroun dthe farmyard

The churchyard is quite well kept or at least the grass was short when I visited

Quite a number of graves are in the churchyard

with quite a few sticking out of the longer grass

The wooden bell turret and church porch

The north side has a lot of Ivy growing on it

and still has it's door in the North wall

Some of the headstones at the East end

 and last a view of the East & North side of the chapel

The porch was as far I got to going inside as the door was locked meaning I need to get the key from somewhere so I intend to return but till then you can see the inside in Oxfordshire Churches 

 I wish you a peaceful weekend