St Nicholas Forest Hill

 

I will start this years Church Explorer off  with the last two visits from last year. The first one is St Nicholas Forest Hill. I only noticed this church while checking to see if I had missed any in the smaller villages in the areas I had visited. The previous church I visited this day was at Horton-cum-Studley and after going around it I stopped on my way back from Oxford and noticed that Forest Hill was not far away and the church was easy to reach, finding somewhere to park was another matter as the church is on a hill by the road. Some history of Wikipedia :-

"The Church of England parish church of Saint Nicholas the Confessor may have begun as a chapel, but by 1341 Forest Hill was a separate parish and St Nicholas' was being referred to as an ecclesia parochialis ("parish church"). It was given to Osney Abbey in about 1140. When the de Lacy manor was granted to Cardinal Wolsey in 1526, St Nicholas' church was included. Thereafter the advowson of the parish remained with whoever owned the manor. In 1807 Lincoln College, Oxford bought the estate, including the manor house and St Nicholas' church. St Nicholas' church building is Norman, and the 12th century chancel arch is probably original.

The church was rebuilt in the 13th century in the transitional style from Norman architecture to the Early English Gothic style: the lancet windows on both sides of the chancel and the gabled bellcote at the west end of the nave date from this rebuilding. Later the present west window was added in the Perpendicular Gothic style. In the same period a south porch was built. Its inner door is Perpendicular, but the outer is transitional between Norman and Early English and has been re-set, presumably from where the Perpendicular doorway is now. In 1639 buttresses were built against the west wall to support the bellcote. The bellcote has two bells, cast in 1652.

In 1847 the architect James Cranston restored the chancel. The Oxford architectural writer and publisher J.H. Parker designed the east window of three traceried lancets. In 1852 the Gothic Revival architect George Gilbert Scott restored the nave and added the organ chamber and north aisle, re-setting the original transitional style north doorway in the new wall. A Sanctus bell was cast and hung at the same time as the restoration. A Wesleyan congregation was established in Forest Hill in the 19th century. It originally had a wooden chapel, but in 1898 opened a new brick-built one.^"

 

 ^{As you can see the church stands beside a road on a hill, admittedly it is behind a wall}

 

First part of the church after entering the gate

 

^{Walk along the path and you come to the porch}

 

The east end which you pass on the way in

 

 

Go around the north side and you find this extension

 

 

Looking towards the north side from the west end

 

The west end and the bells above

 

 

Walking over to the sough you can see the huge buttresses that dominate the west end

 

 The porch which is open for visitors

 

The North east end showing the graves there

The south east corner of the churchyard

 

Along the boundary wall you find headstones standing against it

 

A tomb but the boundary hedge at the west end

 

A gate between a headstone and tomb most likely takes you to a former rectroy

 

 

These tombs are beside the church at the north west end

 

Looking west along the north side

 

Looking across the east end

In the church looking down the nave

This beautiful candelabra really stands out in the church

Over the chancel arch is verse from the bible

 

This is a stitch photo showing the three arches in the north of the nave

 

I had turned the lights on and it washed the photo a bit

 

The chancel arch looks as though it dates back to the 11th century

 

In the chancel looking at the altar and east windows

The east windows

 

The altar cross

Over on the north side of the chancel you see this memorial

 

The inscription 

 

Underneath another which is fading

 

Looking wast through the chancel arch

 

Over to the left a small arch takes you to the pulpit

 

Two stone seats in the chancel

 

These candle holders supported by angels

are on either side of the altar

You come out on the pulpit through a small arch in the chancel

Look down into the church

 

Small lancet window

 

closer view

 

the windows in the nave are all like this

 

with different scenes in them

 

The windows all look stunning sand are dedicated to some person

 

The good shepherd 

The Madonna and child beside a stained glass window

Memorial to Grace  Isabella 

 Stanier memorials

 

Memorial to the millar family

 

Second Miller Memorial 

 

Two more miller memorials, they are all buried along the road in a separate village cemetery

 

Forest Hill Roll of Honour

 

Those who served are listed with crosses marking those who died

 

The church font

 

The organ

 

I will leave you this week with a view of the advent candles with the chancel behind

Till Next time Stay safe and have a peaceful weekend

 

2021 Review Pt 2

 

The week I continue my review of the churches visited in 2021 

The first week of July saw me visiting Dorchester Abbey which was a return visit as I had visited the church many years previous and never did the church justice, I really wanted to go around the grounds and inside the church to see the wall paintings. I ended up going back a second time to get a few more and had to split the blog in two parts to show the place

The second week saw me publish part two of the Dorchester Abbey blog there was so much I wanted to show I felt one blog would not hold it all. The big bonus of the visit was hearing the magnificent Organ being played 

The following week I was on the other side of Oxford at St Mary Charlton-on-Otmoor and as luck would have it the church warden spotted me in the churchyard and let me see inside

You may have noticed I threw a wild card in the middle of the week after the last blog republishing a Ruined Chapel which I had come across while driving past while we were in Wales many years ago. Someone contacted me asking to purchase a copy of the chapel so while I sorted out the photo I updated the blog I also did a little research and found out it used to be called Cornhill Methodist Chapel

 

The next church on the list was St Nicholas Islip which was a return visit  where I got to see inside this beautiful church

The following week I posted St Swithun Merton which was locked when I got there but after walking around the churchyard I hear some one asking if they could help me. A guy was hanging out the window talking to me. I replied I was OK and wonder when the church would be spend, he said he would let me in as he was the churchwarden. Big bonus was he played the organ as well

 

August came around  and I visited St Mary Ambrosden where again I was treated to Organ music

I was playing catch up with the next church All Saints Pusey which I had wanted to visit for a while. I was hoping the church would be open but the person I had arranged to meet was out but as luck would have it he phones a colleague who came and let me in

St Georges Hatford was a church I had not planed to visit but as it was near I made the effort. The churchyard was small and mostly empty of graves and the church was locked but I did take photos through the window which made me want to return sometime

 

August ended with me returning to St Nicholas Ickford which turned out to be worth the effort of waiting for access  

 

In September I returned to St Leonard Waterstock which when I fist visited looked interesting and it turned out it was

 

St John the Baptist Kingstone Bagpuse was the next church. I happened to find the church warden and arranged a visit and was please to be able to go inside this time

 

The following week was another return visit this tie to St Andrew Oddington which turned out to have an interesting memorial to see inside
 

I returned to St Giles Noke for the next visit to see the inside of this lovely little church

In October I published the St Berinus Pilgrimage after meeting some people who were doing one and after visiting the website for the British Pilgrimage Trust I found the St Berinus one and realised I had visited all the churches so I wrote a blog giving directions and what you could see

St Mary Garsington came next in October and it was good to get inside with out the scaffolding surrounding it because of the roof lead being stolen

 

The next church St Michael Rycote was a last moment decision because it is only open up to the end of October. Well it was well worth it and the highlight of the churches I visited in 2021

St Giles Newington has thwarted me for years to see inside but on the way to Rycote I noticed it was open so on the way back I went inside and met some pilgrims, the church was worth visiting as well 

I went along to St Mary Kidlington which has a spire known locally as Our Lady's Needle and is a beautiful church to visit if one that you have a torturous path through a housing estate to reach 

St Michael Cumnor was posted over two blogs on October and November  because of it being so interesting to see inside

 

This followed by a return to St Lawrence Appleton which was beautiful church to look around inside

 

I updated St James Bix next after visiting the older ruined church a few miles away and seeing the new one was open. on my last visit it was locked

 

I was told it was worth visiting St Mary Hapton Poyle when I was in St Mary Kidlington and it was certainty a beautiful little church to visit
 

I visited St Andrew Wheatfield next after arranging to meet the church warden and see inside. Another gem worth seeing

 

As St Mary Adwell was not far away I arranged to visit that one next and was very pleased I did

 I needed to get a church with some Christmas decorations for the last post of the year and went along to St Barnabus Horton-cum-Studley which turned out to be a very nice Victorian church

 

That's my review of 2021, more churches that I expected and a few  I added to the list that were not on it to start with. I still have a couple of churches to post from 2021 which will be posted over the next two weeks. I tank you all for supporting me by reading my blogs and hope you will all do so again in 2022 where I hope to visit more churches for you to see

Till Next time Stay Safe and have a wonderful weekend

2021 Review

 

Who would have though that after all that we went through in 2020 that we would still be in the same position with the Virus still with us and everyone living with the threat of catching it. Things did look up with us all being able to go out and visit again but now it looks like we are nearly back to square one. We can only pray that things do get better. This year for me started with just visiting a few churches and looking around the outside and churchyard, sometimes I was lucky and found the church open for prayer but more often or not they were closed. As the year drew on I found I was returning to the churches I already visited to get photo's inside, I also managed to visit a few new ones which were not on my list plus a few old ones I visited years ago but at the time were locked. It turned out I visited 30 odd churches in the year

On with my Review, the first post was called Hope is Born which was a Nativity walk around the village where you found all the figures in the scene. That was followed by the reviews of 2020 Part1 & two

Got to admit that the following blogs that year were going to pose a problem because by then I had run out of churches to write about as I had not been able to get out to take photos so I came up with the idea of using some of the photos I had and writing a blog around them. I stared off with Tower View where I managed to go up a couple of church towers and showed the views from them and the bells in the tower 

Struggling for what to write next I remembered I took a few of Ickford Church and no one noticed I posted two different churches only the first second and last are, the rest of the photos in the blog are from St Giles Newington.

 

I have to admit I was struggling with what to post over the next few weeks because of Covid it was not easy to go out and visit places so the next post was about the Stained Glass windows you see in churches

Mid February and I remembered a few photos I took of a redundant Church in a nearby town so I managed to write a blog on that. The nice thing is it is still in use if not the original purpose 

The following week I came up with the bright idea and wrote about Church Memorials that you can see when you visit many 

In March we were still under lockdown but as I had to take my son to a Hospital in Oxford I went out and visited St Giles Horsepath nearby while he was having his treatment I knew it would be only the outside but it was a start.

I had already written about Builth Churches  in tribute to Phil Jones who had passed away in 2011 and who I used to email from time to time. I discovered his website after he died.

I visited a place I was familiar with from when I worked over in the village and went to the two churches I knew there, the first one was St Peter a Catholic church near the Church of England one.

It was followed by St Leonard which is in the village centre. Both of the churches I would like to return to for photos of the inside.

 

 

April came around and I had managed to visit St Mary Magdaline Shabbington which was a nice looking old church I must try and return to 

 

This was followed by St Leonard Waterstock which like other churches was locked because of the pandemic.

 

I returned to  St Nicholas Ickford again in the next post and found out the church was going to be open later in the day which I unfortunately missed doing

 

The end of the month saw me visiting St John the Baptist Stanton St John a wonderful old church which I was pleased  to find open I split the blog over two weeks

and showed the inside the following week

 

 The week after I visited area I knew from when I worked nearby and a church I used to pass by on a regular basis  St Laurence Besselsligh was a beautiful old church which I found locked but after phone up a number left in the porch I was granted access 10 min later, well worth it.

This was followed by Assumption BSV Beckley  which to my surprise was open and you did not have to ask me twice to go inside

 

 St Laurence Appletonwas a church I had wanted to visit for a while but due to the lockdown rules was still out of bounds but I did come across the last resting place of an old work Collogue.

 

 A visit to St Giles Noke ended the month of May and a need for a return visit as the church was locked

In June I visited St Nicholas Islip which at the time was having work done on  the electrics but after peeking inside I vowed to return

 

 The following week I took you to St Andrews Oddington which although locked gave me my first look at a complete preaching cross, up to now most have just been the base of stump with the top missing. 

For the last two churches in June I was in Wales and St Gwrthwls Llanwrthwl a fine looking church with a pagan stone sat outside the porch

A few miles away up in the hills you found St Marks Ysfa which has a wonderful monkey puzzle tree outside.

That brings us to the end of the first half of the year so I will finish there and bring you part two next week.

Till then stay safe and may I wish you all a Happy new Year 

Have a great Weekend

 

Remember in your thoughts Bishop Desmond Tutu who passed away last week 

and those affected by the Colorado Fires