St Helen Abingdon Pt2

 

 This week we pay a second visit to St Helens Church in Abingdon a church which I found to be one of the biggest I have been to in a long time. Most Churches I have been to have three bays a centre aisle flanked on either side by and a north and south aisle. St Helen has five bays which made it church with a lot to see. The church must have had a lot of wealthy benefactors in the past to pay for the work done

The entrance porch on the north side, it has a room over it not a place I could look  from what I could see

 Over to the right of the porch you can see this information panel on the church

After showing you the teaser last week here is a panoramic shot of what you see when you come in the door. The church is huge and I had to admit I did not know where to start taking photos there was so much to see. There are four aisles plus chapels to look around. It's quite daunting 

The place I should have began with was the nave which looks down towards the chancel

 

This has a rood screen across it with a rood cross above

The altar and the east wall which has a beautiful panel behind that hides the east window so there is no chance of seeing the stained glass in it

Closer view of the altar and back panel

 

 

The craftsmanship is amazing

 

 

The altar with the candle holders and altar cross

 

Look back the other way and you see the modern altar

 

Which looks a lot nice from the front with the floral display
 

 The aisles I could not tell you what they are but this is the north most one where you come in

 

going over one you come to this aisle which has a chapel at the end

 

 Skipping over the nave you see this aisle with the organ at the end

 

The finally the south aisle which may have had an altar at the end

 

This view looks back towards the west end with the north aisle over to the right
 

 

again looking to the west from the nave with the south aisle furthest away

 

At the end of the north aisle  you find the font with a counterbalanced cover

 

 

There is quite a bit of stained glass in the church this one is the west window in the north sile

 

which I have made a collage of to show, the tree at the bottom are along the south aisle

 

This window is the one next to the north aisle and nave

 

This one is the west window in the nave

 This window may be hidden behind the organ

 

This I think is the lady chapel and is quit beautify in it's simplicity

 

 Between the lady chapel and north aisle is the tomb

 

This plaque on the top, The date seems to be 1371

 

 

Eagle lectern in the chancel

 

 

Some of the memorials you find in the church

 In the comments last week Bovey Belle mentioned the tree of Jessie I did see it but failed to get a photo, this has been cropped from one of the pictures in the collage, I'll get a better one when I go back to Abingdon again

 

There are a vast number of memorials in the church which make up their own collages like this one on the north wall

 

These three are in the south aisle

 

This war memorial is on the west wall of the nave

 

The Crew family memorial is on the east wall of the south aisle

 along with a whole host of other memorials

 

The organ in the aisle beside the nave

 

 

a glass door lets you see the keyboard

 a caring of a figure playing  harp is on the side

 

Quite a few tombs in the floor as well 

 In the north aisle you can see this quite stunning memorial which is partly covered by church paraphernalia 

 

Pulpit which is on a stone plinth

 

This looks down from the pulpit to the nave

 

The over to the next aisle

 

The rood cross

 

The church has quiet a few beautiful candelabras hanging from the roof 

 

A panoramic view of the church from the back of the nave

 

Another from the pulpit

 

While looking around the north aisle I came across the roll of honour just stacked against the doorway

 

There is another panel like this as well. I had to wonder why they were not on show

 

View on the chancel

 

Carved finals on one of the pews, the royal unicorn

 

 and lion

I will take my leave of you the week with this view of a floral display in the church. 

Till next time I wish you all a Happy Easter

Linked with Through my Lens

My Corner of the world

Image-in-ing

St Helen Abingdon

 

Many years ago I did visit St Helens Church in Abingdon, taking photos  of the outside but not inside but then I thought it was locked. I always thought I would come back and look around the inside, I even thought I wrote a blog on it but no I have no record of any blog which I will remedy today. The easiest way to read about the history of the church is to look at the Wikipedia page on St Helens you can also find a printable PDF on the church website

 This first photo is one I took back in 2011 on my first visit, as you can see it is from the opposite side of the River Thames, funny enough my latest visit was more of less the same time of the year

 

Here we look down East St Helens Street towards the church

 

 Nearer the church and the north tower entrance, the arch takes you to the churchyard and the main entrance 

This is around the west side of the church and the porch there 

The west side of the church from further away, you can get the idea as to the size of this church

Back towards the tower along the north side

West entrance porch

This is the east side which faces St Helens Wharf from the slipway

Looking up St Helens Wharf past the church

The south side of the church, I did not think to get  a photo along it or see if you could go through the iron gates but you can see a porch

Over near the north side of the church is a small churchyard with tombs in it

Over to the right a path sweeps around through the churchyard

View of the west porch from across the churchyard

This view taken back in 2011 shows the south side of the church with a path porch, not sure what the building is here but might have been a mortuary but now no doubt used by the gardener

Another view from 2011 of the north churchyard

The west churchyard looking towards some of the old almshouses that surround the churchyard

More of the north churchyard taken in 2011

Some of the statues and head stops you can see around the church

The figure in the porch niche is a lady holding the church so I have to assume it is St Helen as the church looks like the one named after her

This photo was taken back in 2011and shows the churchyard there by the west side of the church and is where I will take my leave for this week. I feel it is better to show the inside in the next blog but as a taster here is what to expect

Till next time I wish you all a peaceful weekend

Sorry to have to announce this but Inspired Sunday which I help host will be closing at the end of the month. I have decided not to carry on hosing it as I find it quite a lot of work trying to ensure that I post Inspired Sunday for you along with the other blogs I write, as it is there are only a few people who post on there so I am afraid that Inspired Sunday will be closing. If anyone wishes to take over then let me or Sally know.  

Linking with Through My Lens