St Bartholomew's Church Holton

St Bartholomew's Church is not far from St Mary in Wheatley and I confess I nearly missed visiting the church as I took the wrong road to get there. The church was first built in 1200 and is transitional between Norman & early Gothic. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century and the rectory was built in 1882 it is now part of a single benefice with St Mary Wheatley.

 Seen from the road St Bartholomew with the Lychgate leading to the churchyard

Through the gate shows a path taking you to a small porch by the North transept

 The belltower with entrance below. 

 The steps on the side lead to the bell loft on the South side of the church

The South  transept

The tower across the churchyard

The doorway at the base of the tower leads into a recess with false wall and window added the doors being removed

This gives a view into the church which is as near as I could get as the doors were locked.

Going round the south side of the tower  shows these steps leading to the bell loft though the smaller door intrigues me, did it lead to a Rood loft?

The West end of the churchyard

These headstones are on the left as you go along the churchyard path

nearer the church they are quite old and loosing the inscriptions

some even succumbing to ivy growing over them

others like these on the South side are lost in long grass

even more you can find looking round are peaking through ivy or hidden in blackberry vines

Some are just forgotten

Others still stand proud with a few grave ornaments around them

These graves lay under a tree on the South side of the churchyard

as do these nearby in the nettles, all see to be of the same family though no one cares for them now

Found this headstone interesting as person named was a gunnery lieutenant on HMS Vanguard

I presume he died in 1913 because the ship sunk when a magazine  exploded in 1917 killing 843 men at Scapa Flow

 

This nice old tomb is near the church

some of the newer  graves north of the churches West end

I'll leave you with this view of St Bartholomew's and wish you a wonderful weekend.

St Mattew Otterbourne

A few years ago before I started writing my blogs I was in Otterbourne where I had the chance to look round the village. One of the first places I noticed was the church of St Matthew. As it was in the evening I could not go in the church to see the interior so only took a few external shots. St Matthew was built built in 1837 to replace the old St Matthew which was falling down though part of it remained till the 1971, the churchyard is still there

First view of the church from the carpark by the village hall

Waling down the main street you pass this seating area

and a fine Lych gate

with inscription over the entrance

inside a seat with deadication

Further along you pass the village war memorial

with steps that lead from the footpath

nearby is the back entrance to the churchyard

which brings you round the West end of the church

waling round to view from the North side you get a good view of the bell turret

looking along the west end of the church

where you can see most of the churchyard

this is the South side with the entrance porch

when I went to the East end I spotted these three graves which I thought at the time has been pushed over. My thoughts were vandals and I wondered how senseless this act was 

I was right in a way, the vandals were Health & Safety and mushed over by persons unknown to me who are worried if they fall on some one the council will be sued. What a great world we live in.

I'll leave you with this view of St Matthew from the South East end of the churchyard and if you check the link you can get a peek inside as I doubt I'll get the chance to visit it again. Have a great Bank Holiday Weekend.

St Mary the Virgin Wheatley

This was one of those chance visits in that I happened to be in the area at the time and took the opportunity to get some photo's round the village. The one place I found first was the church of St Mary the Virgin

You enter the churchyard though this lychgate

 Which has an inscription over the are to Rev Arthur Sturges MA Vicar 1889-1907 

The path takes you to the porch

The feature of this church is the wonderful spire which is not one I have seen in Oxfordshire before.

Below in is the old entrance door

Going to the east end shows a good view of the church and south aisle

 On my walk round the church I came across this memorial to the fallen from the first & second wars

The top part listed the names in the stonework

The bottom not so long listed them on a plaque

On the arch of the porch you can see these wonderful headstops which are becoming eroded 

The west end of St Mary the Virgin

The north side and north aisle

The churchyard has quite a lot of old graves in

I came across on war grave in the west end of the churchyard

I must admit to coming into the churchyard via the churchyard gate from a footpath on the east side where you see the newer part of the churchyard

but walking along the east end takes you to the older part 

where you pass this line of tombs which are very similar. I did not check to see the names though

This part of the churchyard is on the west end

one of the ivy covered tombs

and a cross which is almost covered in ivy

looking south at the west end shows mixture of graves and is where I came across the war grave

This headstone is near the line of tombs on the east end

On the south side near the lychgate you will find the older graves

Some broken others eroding
When I first got there I tried the door expecting it to be shut but there was a lady who I think may have been cleaning and allowed me a few moments to look around and get a couple of photos.  I did not like to hold the lady up from locking up and going home so made do with these few photo's I took.

 The south aisle as you come in

 going across to the north aisle and from the look a nice stone pulpit

 The Nave.

 I'll leave you with this backdrop to the altar I spotted and managed to get a photo of
Have a wonderful Sunday