St Peter Caversham

 

The week the Church Explorer Visits St Peter Caversham, this is a revisit of sorts and will not be the last as I intend to revisit some of the churches in my older blogs because I would like to update some of the photos I am not happy with. On this occasion I had been to Reading with my son to get some art supplies and on the way back I asked if he minded me stopping off to see if the church was open. On the other occasions I visited the church was always locked this was open and I was overjoyed to find it was. Reading Wikipeda the only history is this :- "Royalists stationed troops in St Peter's Church during the Siege of Reading in 1643, and situated a cannon on top of the church tower. The Parliamentarians used artillery to destroy the tower. The church itself was also ruined in the process. " You can read a little more history on the church website  

The churchyard path runs though from west to east and comes out on St Peters Hill.

 I have been here before and written a blog on the church which you can see here and rather that show the churchyard again I suggest you look at the link to St Peter Caversham where you can look around the place. This does not mean I will not go back to get new photos as I feel it is something I should do sometime

The porch where you can see the door open and a sing telling you it is open. All the photos were taken with my iphone

Norman arched doorway

Here we look down the nave to the chancel

Using the pano setting you get a better idea as to how big the church is

The choir part of the chancel

Altar & east window

The floral display as a centrepiece with the altar cross behind

Looking back though the church it seems to go on for ever

The choir stalls with lamps to see the hymn sheets

The east window looks quite magnificent

The pulpit more modern that I would have thought

You look down to the nave and north aisle

And turning left yo the south aisle

This is the south aisle looking towards the lady chapel

The altar a little simpler than the main one

turning west you look to the back

The north aisle with a glass partition at the end

The chapel here now used as a vestry or meeting room, the old altar may be behind the screen you see along with the stained glass window

 

 

The church has a lot of stained glass so I have made collages to show them mostly single windows 

 

The all show scenes from the life of Jesus 

 

Apart from the double window on the left the bigger ones have saints in them

 

These three I thought the nicer ones you could see

 

The corner of the north aisle at the back is the font with memorials on the walls

 

These are in the lady chapel, the one on the left in particular quite old

More at the back of the south aisle

Selection of memorials

 

The nave aisle floor has a few tombs in it

 

from wealthy families who paid fro the privileged 

This one broken and was probably the persons child as it is a lot smaller than the other ones you can see

 

The font which looks like it is quiet old

 

Banner depicting the Madonna and child 

 

The roll of honour different to others I have seen with the book listing the names in a glass case 

 

a seat in the window 

 

by this shrine in the lady chapel 

 

St Peter Caversham banner 

 

Nice eagle lectern which is used unlike some other churches where it is stuck in a corner

Floral display at the back of the church

Another by the choir stalls

 

I will take my leave of you this week with a last look of St Peter from the south east

My thoughts this week go out to an old friend of mine I found out had died a year ago

Rest in Peace Colin 

Till Next time I wish you all a great weekend

St Mary & St Nicholas Littlemore

 

 I had been putting off visiting this church because I could not see where to park but after emailing the Vicar I found out it was possible to park on the road nearby so after visiting Sanford Church I went along in the hope it would be open. Alas not at the time I was there so it will have to wait till I make a return visit in a couple of weeks. My first thoughts on seeing the church was that it looks like it had some older parts but in reading the history I was a little disappointed to find it was built in the 19th century. Some history from Wikipedia :-

"St Nicholas' priory had a priory church, but until the 19th century Littlemore had no parish church. In 1828 John Henry Newman was appointed vicar of St Mary's and he started agitating for a separate church at Littlemore. The new parish church of Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas was designed by the architect H. J. Underwood, built in 1835 and consecrated in 1836. The chancel and northeast tower were added in 1848, and the vestry in 1918. The church is in a Gothic Revival style and became a model for smaller churches of the time"  The church also has it's own wikipedia page with a little more history.  

 A lych gate leads you into the churchyard

Viewing from the right a little you can take in the tower as well

The path takes you to the west door that opens into the church

The tower is over to the north of the church at the east end

The east end with chancel and from the look a vestry

View of the church from the north east

The south side where a covering of trees hides your view of the church

In the corner of the tower and north wall the entrance to the bell loft

back around to the west end

The churchyard wraps around the church both on the north

and south sides

 

with parts of the south side left going wild

 

I noticed a faire few commonwealth war graves in the churchyard

 

with even more in the extension on the east end

here you can see the churchyard left to go wild with mostly cow parsley growing

 

which hide some of the broken headstones around

 

The headstones poke out of the cow parsley

 

The churchyard extension is more a wildlife refuge in the suburbs, around you find notices telling you what wildlife you can see if you are quiet  

 

The church hidden behind the trees

 

Some bluebells grow on a grave though not the real English verity, they bring colour to a sea of green

 

A stone cross along side a wooden roofed cross  in the wildflowers

By the entrance door a small flowerbed

 

A home made cross leans against a fir tree in the churchyard.

With that I will take my leave, till next time I wish you all a Happy Platinum Jubilee weekend