Another Visit to Hampstead Norreys

After my visit back in to St Mary the Virgin back in 2015 I had the opportunity to stop off for a quick visit and some updated photos of the church & churchyard and rather that post more in the original blog I thought I would write a new one

In the last blog a comment was left explaining that these  chest tombs were being restored, I had thought they were fenced off for safety reasons but they were in a fragile state of repair and at risk of collapsing

Lucky a £60000 Heritage Grant was obtained and they were restored

This amazing pyramid tomb was still rusting away

But the grass was well kept

Even the family vault in the corner was still in good order

The railings around this chest tomb had been restored

Along with the other tombs in the churchyard

They looked splendid now

Mind you the odd tomb was overgrown though I think the growth added to the look

I went inside & was pleased to find all the screening I had seen on my last visit had gone and you could see the nave and chancel clearly

The view of the pulpit was not blocked by tables

The organ still looked good

The Altar was unchanged and looking back down the nave the party garlands had been removed

The usual pulpit view I like taking

A good view of the box pew that is still in the front of the church

The simple altar cross is all that was needed

I will leave you with this view of the floral display on the window sill behind the altar, Till next time I wish you a pleasant & peaceful weekend

2018 Review

May I wish you all a Happy new Year, I hope you all had  a great Christmas. As I have been doing a roundup of all the churches I visited over the year for the past few years I see no reason to change and more so a Google+ will be closing down in a few months.  This will be a long blog so get the coffee & cake and read on

This year I started with some churches that were not far from where I live though the first few had been visited the previous year (I always seem to be a month or so behind in posting them) just before Christmas.

The first church was St Mary Magdalen Stoke Talmage which looked very nice on the outside but the door was locked and all I could do was add a link to Oxfordshire Churches showing the inside

St Andrews Wheatfield was not far away and was visited next but again was looked only this time due to a theft that had happened the previous year. I was told it would be opening again but as yet I have not had a chance to return. St Mary Pryton was the last church in January and gave me the opportunity to see inside

February saw me in Didcot, first at the Cemetery which I think dated to the early 20th century it was not far from St Peters Didcot which was next. A Church which was quite old but was one I did not expect to see inside so was not disappointed when I found it locked.

The next 10 posts were visited over a weekend and the first church I visited was one I had wanted to see inside for a long time, Again I was not disappointed, I had stopped off to look at in the past  St Katherine Chiselhampton and it was one of the few Church Conservation Trust Churches that is locked and where  you have to collect a key from a nearby pub. 

All Saints Church Nuneham Courtenay is another belonging to the Church Conservation Trust  and was only a few miles away from St Katherine it is a beautiful church dating to the mid 1700's and well worth visiting if you get the chance

I started March off with the story of the Sutton Wick Air Crash which happened only a few miles way and must have affected the whole area. 

St Peter Marsh Baldon was not far away from another crash site and is a nice little church to visit.

Most of the crew from the crash sites are buried at Abingdon Cemetery where you can visit many war graves there
Not far away is Our Lady St Edmund a Catholic church I have passed but until now never had the chance to visit I found it very interesting in that it was also attached to a convent next door
The month ended with a visit to St Lawrence South Weston
which was one of the churches over in the Watlington area I wanted to visit

St Mary Adwell was only A few miles away but to my loss it was locked and I doubt I will return unless I can get the key to go in the church

 I managed to visit St Leonard Watlington the next day after finding a christening going on on my previous attempt

I took you around the churchyard the following week as I felt it deserved a blog of its own.
I ended the month with a visit to St Laurence North Hinksey was from my archive  it is a beautiful old church and one I will return to when I visit the church in the next village hopefully in the next few months
May came around and I took you to another Conservation Trust Church All Saints Shirburn a church which I had see the sign to many times on my way to the M40 along the road. Must admit when I fist tried to visit the church I had wondered how to get to see it but found out it was in the grounds of a nearly Shirburn House and you got the keys from the gate house and it was well worth the effort of going and getting them

The church after that was St Luke Garford which turned out to be behind a farm but I found was locked, the church begs a return visit when I can get the key
The following week I took you to St Mary Lyford w wonderful old church that dates back to the 13th century and where nearby a Bomber crashed in World War two killing all on board. I still have to visit the graves at a y War Cemetery in Oxford

The month ended with a visit to Wales and Capel Maelog which I only noticed while sitting in the car with my wife eating an ice cream. All that remains of this place is an outline of  a small chapel that once was there in the 10th or 11th century, it was excavated in 1984.

St James West Hanney was in June and I showed this over two blogs with the second one showing the inside of the church

St Andrew Headington was another church from my Archive, something I have run out of now I'm afraid but at least I have the time now to visit new churches. Not much I can say about this one but I may try and visit it again when it is open

St Martin Bladon was the next church, the place you can see the grave of Sir Winston Churchill and though the church does not stand out like some of the others I have visited it is still worth visiting if only to see Sir Winston's Grave and the small exhibition inside.

June went out with a visit to All Saints Newbridge on Wye a fine example of Victorian work but alas the church was locked.

St Nicholas Sulham I had visited before many years previous but the photos were rubbish and it was a quick stop off after visiting some World War two remains nearby. This time I stopped off after going to a DIY store in Reading and was pleased to see it had not changed

St Matthew Harwell was another church I visited a few years ago but never got around to writing a blog on so this was rectified

I ended July with a visit to St Nicholas Beedon a small church on the Berkshire downs off the A34. It has one of the best Scratch Dials I have seen

August saw me in St Barnabus Peasemore a rather splendid looking church with Lychgate leading to it

Not far away was St Mary Chieveley 
but that was unfortunately locked and reading about some of the inside sounds interesting. I think I my be returning to visit this one

I took you to  St Mary Chalgrove for the next two blogs because I felt it could not be covered in one, The church is well worth visiting for the wall art you can see in the chancel

My next two churches were in Long Hanborough First with Christ Church then the following week the Methodist Church neither  of which I managed to see inside.

I made up with this on the following visit to St Bartholomews Chapel a stunning chapel in the middle of a set of almshouses and well worth visit if you are nearby.

Another church I found locked was All Saints East Lockinge which may well be on the cards for a revisit if I can find where to get the key.

September ended with another from the Archive I forgotten about. St Peter Woolhampton, this was locked when I visited many years ago so I may well try to revisit

I had the opportunity to visit the Friends Meeting House in October which I was very pleased about and found the place a friendly one to visit.

St Bartholomew Oare was my next church which was locked but as I know where to get the key I will return as soon as I can

Holy Trinity Hermitage 
is only a few miles away from Oare and I only noticed them while looking at my OS maps for churches I missed seeing the little cross marking the church the first time. It was a nice church that had been re ordered

I was back in Wales for my next church St Afan Llanfechan
 a church that seem to a bit of bad problem with them living in the roof space

Just down the road is Olewydd Congregational Chapel
which had some really nice headstones in the well kept cemetery

The next church was the Rigdeway in Oxfordshire and an area I will be returning to for the interesting old churches around there. St Andrew Letcombe Regis
was  the first church  I visited a church that dates back to 1086.

Along the road is St Michael Letcombe Bassett a church that looks older but is probably from around the same time and has some nice old features to it and some interesting chest tombs

December saw me back in wales at Erwood Chapel which had a nice cemetery that was well kept and over looked the village

From there I travelled to St Mary Crickadarn which was only a few miles away

Across the road from the church is Crickadarn Chapel which was a nice chapel with a well kept cemetery.

Although I had a few more churches & chapels in Wales to show I decided that I would end the year with a church from my childhood that I attended while as school next door.
St James Catholic church has not changed much since I used to go there apart from loosing a bit of the churhyard to a road improvement and gaining a North aisle. It still brought back memories for me.

That is my 2018 roundup, many churches were the ones you will find marked on my map but as ever I find others I had not noticed then visit them they are an added to the map, no doubt it will happen again in the coming year St James was just one of them. I managed to visit a few of the churches in Wales that I had on my map and there are a few still to visit yet. There are many more around the area I live which I will endeavour to visit this year, most of them are with in 35 Km of where I live. I hope you all have enjoyed the churches |I have visited  and will return to see more in 2019.

St James RC Church Reading

You could say this is a trip down memory lane, a pilgrimage to my past. This is a Church I know from my schooldays when I went to the primary school next door, each week we would walk in file from the school to the church for mass. Even though I had been on Sunday I went again in the week as well even if we felt we did not need to go we had to. Since moving on from that school and then on into life I always remembered the school and church when I went. I had visited the church to get some photos and every time I passed I found it locked apart from one occasion when the cleaning lady let me in for a few moments to say a prayer within. The other day I went to Reading on the bus like I did when I went to school back then and after failing to look in a nearby church I went down to the Abbey Ruins then on to St James to be greeted by an open door. I took the time to go in and get some photos of this wonderful old church I remember.

I can tell you the church was started in 1837 and opened in 1840 and has been in regular use since. If you would like to read more on it's history then go it it's own Wikpedia page

There is also a more in depth history on St James Website

St James from the Forbury Gardens. This photo was take many years ago but the outside has changed little , the photo is also used on Wikipedia

St James from near the entrance to the walk past it

When I went to school next door this used to be part of the churchyard with graves in it, the rod you see here was built and too out most of the churchyard, the graves were relocated elsewhere but behind the church you can see most of the headstones

This is the side entrance to the church and way to the rectory, the large lump of stone work you see is part of the original Reading Abbey

Go around to the old prison carpark and you get a view of the apse and the extension which was added to the church

The porch leading into the church has not changed since I used to go through it as a child

Inside you look down a bright and well lit aisle, one thing I noticed was the chairs had been changed, I remember them being very dark, uncomfortable and the kneelers hard

The Altar has moved has forward from when I used to go here, it used to be nearer the arches at the rear 

The Altar covered with purple covering

The central stained Glass window in the apse

The left and right side windows in the apse

Looking back to the choir loft and organ

Above and left the Lady chapel it has some beautiful stained glass in it

at the back you can see more stained glass showing the tree of life

A nearby plaque explaining the dedication of the window

Also in the aisle is a Roll of Honour to those who ost their lives during the second world war and attended St James

The stations of the cross in the Lady Chapel

Looking through the arches you see more stained glass along the nave depicting saints

One side of the lady chapel is a shrine to St James, before I went I siad a prayer and lit a candle

The north aisle dedicated to the Sacred heart

In one corner a shrine to St Xavier

Along the south side are more stained glass windows dedicated to saints & martyrs

This one to Blessed Hugh Faringdon, the last Abbot of the abbey in which ground the church now stands and was martyred in front of the Abbey gates. I went to the school named after him

The two unfortunate monks who were killed along with him

The coat of arms of Hugh Faringdon and which is also the schools emblem. A memorial to the Blount Family who are buried in the church

Thomas Becket

the last one is to St James

A statue of the sacred heart stands next to the font

Which I read somewhere is made using parts of Reading Abbey

Close up of the mural behind the font

From the North aisle you look up at more stained glass windows

A modern take on the Crucifix certainly not what I remember in the church

Sad reminder of our violent past, the grave of Rev François Longuet who was murdered along the Oxford road on his way home from teaching in Wallingford

at the back you can see more statues of saints

either side of the stations of the cross

A crucifix hangs over the Church Tabernacle, this used to be on the altar that was nearer the arch you see when I attended mass here

Back outside you can see St James church on the left, the school I went to on the right and a little further to the right is part of the Abbey ruins.. Hard to believe that that 500 years ago the whole area was dominated by a huge Abbey

St James Church a few days ago

With that I will leave you all for this year and Wish you a Merry Christmas and happy & peaceful new year