St Mary the Virgin Ewelme

 

I thought it time to go and visit a church so my first one is a revisit to St Mary the Virgin Ewelme. The last original blog was called Three Men in a Boat but I was never quite happy with what I wrote. The church is full of history and you read this from Wikipedia :- 

"Thomas Chaucer, who died in 1434, his wife Matilda, and their daughter, Alice de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk, are buried in the Church of England parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin adjoining the almshouses. The tomb chest of Thomas and that of his wife Matilda Burghersh are topped with memorial brasses showing him in plate armour and her in mantle, veil and wimple with their respective crests (his a unicorn and hers a lion) at their feet. Alice's alabaster tomb, almost undamaged by time, consists of a canopy of panelled stone, below which is the recumbent effigy of the Duchess on top of the tomb chest which contains her remains; the space beneath the chest encloses her sculpted cadaver, which is viewed through elaborate reticulated arches. Her effigy was examined by Queen Victoria's commissioners in order to discover how a woman should wear the insignia of the Order of the Garter.

William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk was Alice's third husband; she was married first to Sir John Philip, and second to Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury. Her five-year-old step-great-granddaughter, Anne Beauchamp, 15th Countess of Warwick, also died at Ewelme, but was buried at Reading Abbey. Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927), author of Three Men In A Boat, lived at Gould's Grove just southeast of Ewelme. He and his wife Ettie (died 1938) are buried in St. Mary's churchyard; their tombstone reads "For we are labourers together with God. I Corinthians III. 9". Scenes in the 2012 film Les Misérables were filmed at the parish church of Ewelme." 

In my last blog I warned it was quite long well this one is so get a coffee & cake

 

Looking from the road from the north east

 

From along the path to the north side of the church

The south side with wood frames entrance porch

The east end of the church

some of the tombs along the east end

there are a couple more by the path on the north side

Looking back easterly across the churchyard

Going around to the churchyard on the south side

you can find a mixture of old and more recent headstones here

over to the south side are older tombs and headstones

I was rather taken by this headstone

back around to the tombs on the east end

a memorial cross I liked near the tombs

Across the road from the church is a new cemetery

The first headstone with Hey Barbel is the last resting place of an aviator, you can also find the two commonwealth war graves of 

Flt Lieutenant D Rutherford and  BDR A.J.Billing

The porch leading to the church

with graffiti of course

 

The nave with north and south aisles

I will leave it there and show the inside in Part2

Till next time I wish you all a pleasant weekend

St Mary Waterperry

 

This has long been a church I have put off visiting  for one reason or another but I decided as it was only a few moles from the last church at Holton then it was time to bite the bullet and visit. As it was one of my worries about visiting was it is in Waterperry House gardens and I was concerned about parking which it turned out was no problem. Very little history on Wikipedia:-

"The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin is partly Saxon and has notable medieval stained glass, sculptural memorials, Georgian box pews and memorial brasses"

 The west end of the church and as much as most people will see, over to the south and east end is a churchyard which at the time I could not see a way of getting in, I have since found out where the entrance is so may well return and add a few photos to this blog 

The entrance to the church is via door to the right as you look at the church, you come in through here

 

As you walk in you will see the south aisle

Turn to your left and walk across to the nave where you can look down to see the chancel

Looking through the chancel arch to the chancel

Wide view of the chancel

The altar and east window

I failed to get a photo of this part of the east window so had to crop this part to show  top has bits of medieval stained glass mixed in

The altar with covering, the peacock embroidery is quite something

Two step pulpit

which shows a beautiful view of the nave and south aisle

If you look straight ahead as you open the first door on the pulpit you will see and opening with a staircase, right above is an opening which would indicate there was a rood loft at one time

Looking around the church you will see some impressive memorials

This beautiful one is to Anna Maria Hooke Greaves

But this one stood out

The memorial looks like it is from around Tudor times

If you look around the church you will find some brasses mounted on plaques

there are also a fare few tombs in the floor

 

This one being the oldest I have come across in a while dated 1580

This rector lived to a good age

As you walk in the door look right and you will see this window with modern stained glass inserts

but look around the church and see the beautiful windows with medieval glass inserts 

They all have a figure at prayer

This one in the tower looks to be a jumble of glass

Looking at it close it does look odd

The collage shows the figures in the windows

And this is the stained glass at the top of the windows

There are some single windows in the church, one I managed to get the reflection of the colours

as far as I can work it out this is the coat of arms of King George II

 

Corbels with faces and headstops in the church

 

In the south aisle is this monument

Showing a knight in armour

the shield and sword look to me like it is Norman

His feed rest on a lion

I was struck by the laps that are on the pews

I will leave you with the view of the font which is at the back of the nave

Till next time I wish you all a pleasant weekend