Haddenham in Buckinghamshire

Travelling back from Oxford on Monday I stopped off at Haddenham, a large village north of Thame in Buckinghamshire. Aylesbury ducks were bred on ponds around the village and have been re-introduced on the pond by the village green.



St Mary’s Church stands beside the duck pond and village green – you can’t get more English than that!



The tower has early Gothic blind arcading around the belfry and the porch on the north side is two storey.



Inside the church is one of the famous Norman fonts (12th century) which are found in the Aylesbury area.There are some 22 'Aylesbury' fonts, named after one of the best examples in St. Mary's Church, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. The fonts are cup or chalice-shaped with vertical fluting on the lower part of the bowl.They were mostly made at the end of the 12th century, of stone from the Totternhoe quarry in Bedfordshire. The fluting on the bowl at Haddenham differs from the others as it consists of a series of triangles.There are dragons in the frieze.

Plumtree

Fudge, Graphite and Granite and Freddie, resident guard alpacas in a field near the church in Plumtree.

...and what are they guarding.... chickens.


Further down in the village there are more chickens in the garden of the Rectory.



The Rectory is a fine Art Deco style building with room for more chickens if need be..



St Mary’s Church was founded around the year 837, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. Nothing remains of the earliest church, which was probably built of wood, but the underlying stonework dates from Saxon times. The tower is largely Norman and the rest of the church mostly dates from the fourteenth century, although substantial rebuilding and redecoration was carried out between 1873 and 1875 by the well known Victorian architects G F Bodley and Thomas Garner. Major restoration of the Victorian workmanship was carried out during the 1980s. http://www.plumtreechurch-notts.org/






The organ was built for Plumtree by Wordsworth and Maskell in 1879-80 and was the gift of William Elliott Burnside.The organ case was designed by Canon Frederick Sutton.












The organ is unusual in that it has reverse coloured keys.







Redundant church clock mechanism removwed in 1997 when the clock was converted to electric winding.




View towards the Chancel. the chancel screen was installed in the 1873-75 restoration and reguilded in the 1980's.



On the south wall of the chancel there are three stone sedilia with ogee moulding above.



This view shows the Oak altar table with carved front face. Behind is the Reredos of pine painted with shields showing the instruments of the crucifixion. The east window is in late medieval German idiom. it was commissioned by and commemorates the Burnside family. 1872-3. It is by the firm of Burlison & Grylls, a Victorian stained glass studio working in neo-Gothic style.

Journey to Pluntree, Notts

First Stop Loughborough.

The Signaler (2003), a sculptue by John Atkin, stands in the centre of the Rushes Retail Park.

A plaque notes ‘The overall form of the sculpture is of the figure and the materials used reflect the past industries of the region and the future. The sculpture is made from a combination of cor ten steel and stainless steel. The base is made from concrete in addition to stainless steel details. Cor ten steel has distinct weathering characteristics that allow the surface skin of the metal to weather to a particular colour.’


All Saints with Holy Trinity Church, Loughborough. The current church was first built in the fourteenth century, round about 1330 which was during the decorated gothic period. The height of the tower was increased and a clerestory was added in the perpendicular period, about 1450. http://www.aswht.org/history.htm





The base of the tower is dedicated to the memory of the Taylor family of bellfounders.









Bunny is a village between Loughborough and Nottingham. The most significant building in the village is Bunny Hall, probably built in the 1570s and occupied by the Parkyns family for three hundred years. Sir Thomas Parkyns (1662-1741), known as the Wrestling Baronet. Unfortunatly this is now in private hands and we could not get close to it.

Sir Thomas Parkyns was responsible for several buildings, in particular the old school house and almhouses close to the church. They were designed and built in 1700.The almshouse was for four poor widows of Bunny and Bradmore.




Sir Thomas Parkyns’ coat of arms can be seen on the end elevation.















The church of St Mary’s has a 13th Century nave and aisles were built of loosely-coursed rubble, quite different from the hewn, squared stone of the later 14th Century chancel and tower. Inside there is an oak screen, also dated as 14th Century and the Vestry has a medieval aumbry - a cupboard where the sacred vessels were kept. The south porch, with its stone seats, was added in the 15th Century.



Bradmore is a small village just north of Bunny. Bradmore is famous for a fire in 1705 when a great part of the village was destroyed. The square tower of the Church was built in the thirteenth century and an octagonal spire added in the fourteenth century. Building was halted until the Black Death had abated. The church then suffered badly in the fire and remained unused for a considerable time. A small hall was erected next to the tower in 1881, where services are now held once a month.

















The long and undulating road from the A60 to Plumtree.

A few sights along the A40

Another detour from the M40 on the way to see Mum and Dad. This time I left at Junction 2 as rain was threatened later in the journey.

First stop was Beaconsfield – this has been used as a stopping place to use the facilities before the new Beaconsfield Motorway services opened. Beaconsfield is a typical Home Counties town full of rich architecture down the main street, no doubt hiding some less than splendid estates in the background. St Mary and All Saints Church is quite large but appeared somewhat soulless to me.



The War Memorial was more unusual very elaborate with a permanent light in the top



One of the many drinking fountains provided by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association in and around London.



After Beaconsfield and the nightmare that is High Wycombe comes West Wycombe, a small village on the A40 which must have been hell before the M40 opened. It is full of coaching houses – The George and Dragon being a typical example.



I parked in front of a wonderful timbered framed building called the Church Loft with original Clock dated 1688. It was a pilgrims rest house and lock up, and dates back to the 15th Century.



On the hill overlooking West Wycombe stands the church of St Lawrence and the Dashwood Mausoleum.

They look quite impressive as you approach the village. The church is 18th centuary and famous for its Golden Ball which (I have read) can seat up to eight people giving views over the surrounding countryside. The interior is suppose to be quite impressive but the church was locked when I was there.



The Dashwood Mausoleum.



The Dashwood Mausoleum was built in 1765. It is sited at the summit of West Wycombe Hill (which is also the site of an Iron Age Hill Fort). The mausoleum is hexagonal in plan and constructed of Portland stone and flint. It houses the urns containing the ashes of the Dashwood family. One member of the family was the infamous Sir Francis Dashwood, responsible for excavating the nearby West Wycombe caves for the debauched cavortings of the notorious "Hell Fire Club." a group of fellow aristocrats and men of influence.



The view from in front of the Mausoleum looking south east back along the A40 towards High Wycombe.



Further along the A40 is Stokenchurch which has a small church with foundations dating back to Anglo Saxon times.



.....and then the rains came so I headed back onto the M40!

Blaydon, Woodstock and Long Compton

Another trip to Mum and Dad's last Saturday, this time via the old Oxford to Stratford Road. We first stopped at Blaydon (near Blenheim palace). Sir Winston Churchill had expressed a wish to be buried at Bladon, the small village close to the family home of Blenheim. So, on 30 January 1965, after his state funeral service at St Paul's Cathedral, London, his body was transported by train to Bladon.



Close to Blaydon is the small town of Woodstock. The old town stocks in the centre of Woodstock have holes for five legs….why?



Further along the road into Warwickshire we then stopped at Long Compton. The Lych Gate at St. Peter and St. Paul, Long Compton is quite unusual. According to a sign posted on the notice board beneath the lych gate:

"The parish lych gate dates from about 1600, when it was the end of a row of cottages. Most of these were demolished in the 1920s. The lych gate became first a cobblers and later an antiques shop in the middle of the last century.

It was re-roofed and restored by a past resident, Mr George Latham, and given to the Church as a memorial to him by his wife, Marion, on 12th November 1964. The room above the gate is loaned to the Compton District History Society."




The church itself is pretty impressive : it is believed that St. Augustine preached on this site in 597AD. The present building dates from the 13th century



Inside the Easter story was presented as a model on the Font - something I haven't seen since I was a child at Churchill Church in Worcestershitre.

Horley - but not as we know it

Last Saturday, on the way to Mum and Dad’s, I stopped at Wroxton near Banbury. While I was there I saw a sign post to Horley.














Horley in Oxfordshire is a small village with a magnificent church. Both church and village are built from the same golden Hornton stone - ironstone - which was once quarried locally and is now quarried at Edge Hill.

St Etheldreda’s Church tower is circa 1100, with two circa 1200 belfry windows. The Chancel is circa 1200.

The church is notable for its wall-paintings. Once a common feature in English churches, most have been lost over the centuries. There is a huge St Christopher on the wall of the north aisle and is one of the best examples of a St. Christopher wall painting in Britain. It was dated 1450.

There is a small painting thought to be St Zita on one of the pillars.





There are also medallions with the ubiquitous letter "T" near the rood screen which may relate to Thomas Becket (martyred 1170AD).

A truly wonderful church in a very picturesque village.

Wroxton – thatched church and an old guide post

Driving up to Mum and Dad’s on Saturday, I left the motorway at Banbury and took the old road to Stratford. Wroxton is a village a few miles west of Banbury full of thatched cottages.

It has a small Catholic Church, reputed to be one of only eight in the country with a thatched roof.



















At the west end of the village there is an old Guide Post on the North Newington Road. Hands on the post point out the way to Banbury, Stratford and London.
















Keeping on the thatching theme even the Duck House in the village pond is thatched!






























The mainly 14th Century All Saints Church built in the local ‘Ironstone’.