St Mary Banbury

Back in 2023 I visited St Mary Banbury which unfortunately I found to be locked at the time, later I found out volunteers open at set hours during the day and I had got there long after they had gone. It was a church I would like to have visited. On this Friday when I visited I found out that when I hope to go there it would be closed but when I drove past on my way to Alkerton I saw the doors open. I nearly turned around and went back. After getting the call from my son half way to a second church I passed St Mary again and it was still open. I asked my son of he minded me going there and he came along as well, the church was still open with people having coffee, turned out it was Womens World day of Prayer and they were having refreshments after the service and they did not mind me getting some photos.

This photo was taken back in 2023 hence the closed door.

 

After going through the entrance doors you are in a circular atrium where you will see this bier, I've come across a lot of these in North Oxfordshire and this one looks like a well restored on now used for leaflets
 

 

 Looking up at the atrium ceiling

Now I have seen photos of the inside but seeing the place for the first time it looked amazing

The domed ceiling

The church has partly been reordered with a raised platform for the altar which is now used for services 

Looking across the altar to the chancel

The chancel and altar rails

The altar sits in a apse with murals around the outside, no east windows

Looking up at the ceiling

And the mural that looks down on you

The organ is over on the north side with a window above

There are more pipes on the east side

Over on the south side murals and stained glass window

Closer view of the murals and stained glass window

Turning around and looking west to the entrance

Looking from the altar rails. What I found interesting was the galleries around the outside of the church to cram in more people, I've never seen galleries in a church before

This is a first, the pulpit is on a purpose built trolley. It must have been moved when the built the new platform for the altar because I think it would have been nearer the chancel back when it was first put in

Looking down from the pulpit

Over in the north aisle where you can see the roll of honor, there are a lot of names on the panel as it was a market town

Memorials above the roll of honor for Bnabury

Opposite is another roll of honor for WWII

 

Memorial to William John Lidsey

On either side guarding the roll are these statues

More memorials in the church

These two you find in the north and south aisles

 Probably the oldest memorials in the church

I could not say what this was used for but you see a bible on display

Treacle Bible also know as the Bishops Bible the name came about because of a translation which is

 "Is there not treacle at Gilead?"

Carved eagle lectern

At the back you can see some carvings from the original church

Walking around the church you cannot miss the stained glass window

All with different scenes on them

There are a lot of them

All beautifully done

I love the fact they kept the box pews in the church

Go upstairs to the gallery and there are more stained glass windows to see

Though the galleries were not in use I still went along to take photos, After I thought I should have taken the photos from the opposite side rather than beside them looking up

At the end of one gallery you can see this east window

While I was up there getting photos I took this one of the window behind the organ

The other gallery east window

So here we look down from the gallery to the nave, the galleries still have the original pews in them

Towards the altar and chancel, I love the pillars in the photo

North gallery

South gallery,

Panoramic view of the church from the gallery

The font looks quite special

Looking up at the galleries and ceiling in wide angle

Normal view

Last look at the ceiling towards the altar

Till Next time may I wish you all a peaceful week

St Michael & All Angels Alkerton

 

For a while I have been deliberating how to go about visiting  St Michael & All Angels Alkerton as it was one of the five churches I wanted to visit around Banbury as it happend my son had to visit the Horton Hospital for a scan which I knew would take around an hour or so. After a quick look at the map and using the route finder on Google maps it turned out the place was around 15 mins away so enough time for a visit. It worked out well and I though I had time to go to the next church but my son phoned so it was pick up time. I did get to visit a second church with him which I will be showing next week.

"The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of St Michael and All Angels are the lower stages of the central bell tower, which date from the 12th century in the Transitional style between Norman and Early English Gothic. Towards the end of the 12th century the south aisle was added, linked with the nave by an Early English Gothic arcade of two bays. Early in the 13th century the east and west arches of the central tower were replaced with Early English Gothic ones. A stone effigy of a knight in an early 13th-century style was presumably added about the same time.

Early in the 14th century the upper stages of the bell tower were built and the nave was rebuilt. Late in the 14th century a clerestory was added to the nave. The exterior of the clerestory is elaborately decorated with figures of men and animals carved from Hornton stone. The style of carving belongs to a school of 14th century north Oxfordshire masons whose work survives also at Adderbury, Bloxham and Hanwell.

Early in the 17th century the rector, the mathematician Thomas Lydiat, had the chancel rebuilt in the Perpendicular Gothic style. In 1889 the architect JA Cossins restored the church building and added an organ chamber south of the tower and east of the south aisle. St Michael's is now a Grade I listed building. The tower has a chime of four bells but they are not currently ringable. The oldest bell was cast in about 1400 and another was cast in 1618. St Michael's is now one of eight ecclesiastical parishes in the Ironstone Benefice"

Like a lot of the churches build in the area it features that beautiful colored stone

I used my wide angle lens on portrait so the church loos stubby

  

North east view

 

North side

around the the north west

finally the west end

Doors and windows

This may have been a mass dial

I noticed this water spout as I was leaving, it's just a shoot on the other side of the church

 

From across the churchyard 

Tombs as you walk up the path

After I took the photo of these two headstones by the back I checked the dates

The words still readable and the date is 166?

The other one you can read a date of 1652

Not quite as old but 1715

and this one 1725

Looking south of the church

Up by the east end of the church

North of the church is another part of the churchyard

Along the west end

Over by the porch

The caring still there but the words long eroded

The porch leading in

First look as you walk in the church

The nave to the chancel arch

The chancel arch looking through the cross over under the tower

In the cross over a choir

Inside the chancel

The altar just a simple table

Looking back down the cross over to the nave

Through the nave to the back

The pulpit, behind you can see a door that would have you up stares to the opening you see above it coming out in the rood loft

Another view of the pulpit

The view from the pulpit

Pillars ether side of the chancel arch

In the chancel the effigy of a knight which is well worn away and a memorial

Couple more memorials you will see in the church

The windows, I noticed the corbels when I looked at the photo later

Cropping the photo gives a better idea. Normally I would have used my zoom lens but forgot

West window

South aisle

Out line of a solder who did not return

Behind the screen is this small chapel with altar 

Again a simple table

South to north through the cross over

 At the back of the south aisle is the font which looks to be Norman

Final view through the church

Till next time may I wish you all a peaceful week