St Nicholas Islip

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Nicholas Islip  the second of the churches I visited around North Oxford a s few weeks ago. This is a church I was looking forward to seeing after realising it was not too far away. A little History off Wikipedia below though if you go to the link above you can read a little more :-

"Edward the Confessor (born circa 1004, died 1066) was born in Islip and tradition holds that he was baptised in a church here. Parts of the present church date from about 1200. The chancel was rebuilt in 1780 and the church was restored in 1861. The church is Islip's only Grade I Listed Building. The belltower has a ring of eight bells. Since 1987 the Church of England parish has been part of the Ray Valley Benefice.

A chapel associated with Edward the Confessor existed north of the church. The chapel was damaged in April 1645 in a military engagement in the English Civil War, and in the 1780s it was demolished.

The former rectory was built in 1689 for Robert South and enlarged in 1807 for William Vincent. It is one of several Grade II* Listed Buildings in Islip"

 

 This is the view of the church from near the village centre and where you could park

Walking along the path to the opposite side you come to the west end an bell tower

Looking across the churchyard to the east end

Walking past the chancel end with the priest door

Another view of the west end and tower

Here you can see the tower and north aisle

Walking around the north side you can see an extension that has been added on with chimney indicating this may be a vestry

 

 

 The north side of the church

 

Looking from further along towards the east end
 

East end of the church with a fenced tomb chest
 

 

Another shot of the east end from near the path

 

 

A lot of older graves can be seen here at the east end

Roy Stuart Lee and Catherine were a long way from their native home

Graves you can see while walking along the path on the south side

Further along at the west end

And the south west end

A couple of tombs can be seen here on the west end of the church

Looking east along the north side

This is one of the tombs on at the west end of the church

Simple headstone of Gerard L'estrange Turner and his wife Helen Elizabeth

Mixture of headstones on the far north side of the church

Looking west on the same side

East end showing a couple of tombs

In the south side is this wonderful old chest tomb

Near the chancel end you find these older headstones

By the church this older one with the inscription gone

Another sinking in the ground the headstone eroding

 

I will leave you with this shot of the cowslips that grown in the churchyard.

Visit this link to see the inside 

Till Next time Take Care and have a wonderful weekend

 

St Giles Noke

 

Noke is a little village in a backwater of Oxfordshire  and was the first church on my list for the day. The history I found on Wikipedia.:- "Noke had a parish church by 1191 but the present Church of England parish church of Saint Giles dates from the first half of the 13th century. At the end of the 16th century a mortuary chapel was added for the Winchcombe family on the north side of the church, but in 1745 the chapel was in a ruinous condition and was demolished"

 

Parking nearby I walk along the road and take this shot of St Giles over the wall

 

The main entrance to the churchyard is by the west end of the church

 

 

Walk over to the south a bit and you get a wonderful view of the church

 

 Walking around the west end of the church

 

You come around to the north side

 

Were you can carry on to the east end of the church

 And look at  the east end of the church

 

Finally yo get back to the south side of the church

 

 

Look up at the bell cote with it's two bells
 

The porch with it's door leading to the church which was locked when I checked

 

 The West end of the church

 

From the outside you can make out the stained glass window

 

 

The gravestone of Thomas and Sarah Jones
 

 

Headstones along the south side of the church

 

Gordon Holder of the RAF

The churchyard beside the path at the west end of the church

Chest tomb near the porch

Around on the east end of the church

Looking back west on the south side

 

 

Looking north across the east end

Back on looking east over the south side

An interesting headstone with a poem made from letters making Malcolm

This headstone was right over in the corner of the churchyard

 

A last look at St Giles from the corner

I will leave you with this shot of some cowslips that were growing in the churchyard.

Till Next time I wish you a pleasant weekend

Stay Safe 

You can see the inside when I revisited St Giles Noke in September

 

St Lawrence Appleton

 

Before you start reading the blog I have to tell you Feedburner are stopping the superscription service not that it worked as I found out is was linked to My Grave Place which was the original blog I had so I doubt any one got any updates for years. I have now stopped that and deleted everything associated with it and have replaced it with a new subscription service and if you wish to follow me buy email and get the latest blog you just need to use the subscribe button on the right.

I have know of Appleton ever since I worked in Oxford and had an Apprentice who came from the village, he was known to us a Jaffa, not sure where he got the name from other that It could be he liked Jaffa Cakes. Jaffa worked at the same place for years then left and I never heard of him again and I often wonder how he is getting along. Appleton was not far form the church at Besselsleigh which used to be part of the group at one time. The church has long been on my list to visit along with the one at Cumnor so I drove along after seeing the St Lawrence at  Besselsleigh. Some history from Wikipedia :-

"The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of Saint Laurence are 12th-century Norman. The north aisle was added late in that century, linked with the nave by a four-bay arcade of pointed arches. In the 13th century a new window and doorway were inserted in the south wall of the nave, as was the priest's doorway on the south side of the chancel. The east window of the chancel is 14th-century in style. In the 15th century the Perpendicular Gothic bell tower was added, a window inserted on the south side of the nave and the nave was re-roofed. The south porch was added early in the 16th century, the north aisle was rebuilt in the 17th century and the north porch was built in about 1700. The Gothic Revival architect CC Rolfe restored the nave in 1882–84. The church is a Grade II* listed building.

Monuments in the church include a brass of two shrouded corpses in memory of John Goudrington, who died in 1518, and his wife. In the chancel is a Renaissance stone monument erected in 1593 in memory of Sir John Fettiplace, who died in 1580. It includes a life-size effigy of Sir John in 16th-century armour, a pair of Corinthian columns supporting a canopy surmounted by a pair of obelisks, and a long Latin inscription surrounded by extensive strapwork and a number of skulls.

The tower has a ring of ten bells, all cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Thomas II Mears cast the seventh bell in 1817. George Mears cast the second and third bells in 1859 and the ninth and tenor bells in 1861. Mears and Stainbank recast the eighth bell in 1874 and cast the treble, fourth and fifth bells in 1875. The sixth bell was recast, and the fittings for all bells replaced, and a new frame installed in 1977. The work was carried out by White's of Appleton, in the same village.^"

 

The main entrance is along a drive which stops near the church, walk across the churchyard and you get a nice view of the North side of the church

 

 

The bell tower with some family tombs below

 ^{Walking around the west end you find an old entrance to the church}

 

Going around the south side to the east end looking at the church

The east end of the church with north aisle

The south entrance porch

Above which you find this beautiful statue of St Lawrence

From the entrance drive a view across the churchyard

Looking east at some older graves

 

 

Looking west

A couple of small angels one in the background

The south side of the church

I only realised who this person was after seeing a relations grave the little bells give you a clue

I have not come across a flute on a grave before

The white family headstone with the church in the background I'll let you know who they are later

Looking west towards the manor

An old headstone with cherubs on it, I suspect dating from around the 1700's
 

Looking towards the north side of the church from the churchyard

The arched headstone on the right I though unusual in this area

Now I mentioned the white family in photo previously well this is another one and I think you might get another clue in the inscription. The White Family is very famous around Oxordshire for making and hanging bells  and their company Whites of Appleton Ltd is the Oldest Continuously trading Bellhanging Company in the UK. My old mate Cliff Garlick mentioned Whites on may occasions and I have no doubt knew Frank well, I dare say they both raised a glass together in the local when Cliff rang here

While walking around the south side of the churchyard I noticed memorials for the cremated of the parish by the wall, I tend to look around local ones to see if I recognise any one, well this one I did. Rex used to work at Oxford Instruments in Osney Mead while I worked there. He worked in the same workshop on a bench nearby and did some of the most accurate machining I have seen any one do especially considering the machines were well used. I might add he always cleaned it before and after use and you knew hen he had been on one. I cannot remember when he retired which is rather sad but I never forgot the guy and always wondered what happened to him. I know now he lived to a reasonable age. 

The blog is dedicate to Rex May he Rest In Peace 

 

 I intend to return to the church to see the inside when we are allowed

Till Next time have a peaceful weekend