This England: Road Trip: The Church in Burford

After a day perusing the intriguing collections and gardens at Snowshill Manor, we were ready to find our lodgings and have a good dinner. We headed off to Burford, a small town in Oxfordshire, and landed at the Royal Oak, a pub with lodgings above.

It wasn't our favorite hotel -- the rooms were cool and the dinner expensive. I wrote in my journal "adequate but not spectacular fish and chips."  Still, the lodging price was right and I would return. The room was comfy enough, but I think we were spoiled by The Bear. (Maybe when it was a little warmer out!)

But I have to admit, the pub was charming and the full English breakfast the next morning was delicious.

We wandered through the town -- it was fairly early so most of the shops weren't yet open but that was probably a good thing! As always, I was charmed by Paddington Bear in one of the windows.

Then it was off to Burford's St. John the Baptist Church. 

 

I really like exploring old churches, especially those as old as the ones in England. This one dated back in part to the 1100s, with Norman and later, Victorian architecture. 

Long forgotten bits of my art history minor were coming back to me in viewing the structure but I was glad we were with Jenny and T, who knew far more about such things than I remembered from some fifty years earlier! (I did remember that rounded arches like this are Norman!) Aren't the hinges on this door terrific?

I'm very fond of graveyards and cemeteries. The one at Burford had some very interesting tombs -- some of which were very old.

But the tombs aren't just outside. Many were honored within the churches walls.

Another, including Sir Lawrence Todd and his wife, Elizabeth, who lived at the Priory in Burford in the years around 1585, had its own "wing!" Todd was the Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in the 1600s.

 

The interior of the church -- at least the older parts -- were beautiful too, with high fan vault ceilings.

Other areas of the ceiling had remarkable details.

Several things about this church really impressed me. First was the baptismal font. 

Anthony Sedley, who had been a Leveller back in the 1600s had carved his name in it. The Levellers were populists, emphasizing equal rights, equal justice and religious tolerance. (Jenny and I decided that we would have been Levellers!) 

The Levelers were considered mutineers and in 1649, Cromwell's men caught up with them in Burford and 340 were held prisoner in the church, the only building large enough to hold them. Sedley was one of  them. He scratched his name and the word "Prisner" into the font. Apparently, Sedley was not executed but others were, including these three who are memorialized with a plaque.

Another thing I found especially beautiful and interesting was this monument given by Edmund Harman in 1560 as "thanksgiving for a successful life." Harman had been King Henry VIII's barber and witnessed the King's will.

The characters are said to be representations of inhabitants from the Amazon area. It is noted Harman may have had experience with trade in Brazil.

Finally, the stained glass was fabulous. Some pre-Reforamation glass remains in the church but most is more recent. 

The window in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit was especially lovely. Included as an image of St. James of Compostela. It shows the pilgrim's shell on his hat.

Also in this area is a lovely image of a woman with an elaborate "butterfly" head dress.

While much of the church had was now more contemporary, it was this older part I most liked and appreciated.

 

What I didn't like was that much of the church had gone "modern" with television screens and comfortable looking chairs that seemed oddly inappropriate for such a classic building. (Although I do have to say that as church seating goes, they looked pretty comfortable and more colorful, which was lovely in this large, open space. I think it's the TVs that got to me most. I couldn't even bear to photograph them!)

I especially appreciated the work and the beauty in the large number of colorful kneeling cushions found on the seat of each chair. 

The needlepoint embroidery was beautiful and the designs varied and charming.

 

After viewing the church, we hit the road again. Our next destination is Hughenden, the country home of Victoria's prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli.

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