Diane and Dennis Blease had planned an excellent circuit for us taking in 13 churches (and a stop for a sandwich in a nice pub). It was a fairly leisurely timetable, but I was kept very busy in each church hearing about their plans and problems. Julia Twynam our Area Representative had given me a good briefing but it was very rewarding to see at first hand what is being achieved and to meet so many of those involved. I was also able to distribute copies of our new publicity leaflet and to seek contributions from the churches for our website.
Bishop Colin and I were in good company as we cycled round the Vale of the White Horse as part of this year’s Ride and Stride. The presence of Tony Moore aged 87 and Chloe Bramwell aged 11 in our cavalcade meant that we had no excuse for slacking, but we had chosen The Vale because it is a new part of Bishop Colin’s patch, because it was a part of the county which I did not know – and because it is flat. So it was really a very pleasant day’s ride.
We started from Uffington with its beautiful octagonal tower where we had helped with the cost of repairing the windows. Then on to the lovely church at Baulking where the works which we are helping to finance were in full swing; they are putting in a servery, a toilet and a new organ.
At charming Goosey I was shown the nasty patches of wet rot which have suddenly appeared. Stanford-in-the-Vale told me of their plans for a major re-ordering, underfloor heating and a toilet.
St George’s, Hatford was a fascinating curiosity. In the nineteenth century the wealthy vicar had built himself a new church to replace the lovely little Norman one. Into the west end of the Norman church he had botched a curious mausoleum for himself. In the 1970s the Diocese had deconsecrated and sold his Victorian church building. It is now a private house. The village had then somehow managed to bring the old church back to life and patch the roof. The building is now an interesting challenge for all concerned but is coming back to life and was full of the flowers from a wedding the previous week – probably the first there for over a hundred years. Well worth a visit. I hope we can find out and publicise how visitors can get access on a normal day.
St Faith’s in Shellingford has a fine collection of mostly C18 wall monuments but problems with water getting in through its windows. It too is a tiny village but would like to put in a servery and toilet.
I was particularly keen to see St John’s in Fernham since it is one of the churches featured in Becky Payne’s book Churches for Communities. It is now run by a village trust and hosts all manner of village events. I was told that the new management arrangements are working well, but they have learnt the hard way that they need to put in a capability to boost the underfloor heating for the coldest days in winter.
In Longcot the little Methodist chapel was extremely welcoming and proud of its ability to host small village events. The Anglican church of St Mary’s was another with ambitious plans: not only for a toilet but also for the re-creation of the gallery which had been there in the eighteenth century. They had works in progress to deal with water coming in.
Watchfield was the only church which we could not get into. There was a wedding and we arrived in time to watch the entry of the bride (from the road). A good excuse to pause and catch our breath.
Shrivenham proved to be a very interesting church. It was built in the 1660s in Gothic style around the Perpendicular tower from the previous church with Tuscan columns which my guidebook describes as a bit of a joke.
Then after yet more hospitality at the Methodists’ well-maintained little church in Shrivenham we went on to Woolstone, another charming church. We learned that the electrical system has just been condemned and they are in the throes of deciding how to replace it and with it the lighting and heating.
Finally back to Uffington where the squash and delicious biscuits which we had been offered at every church on our tour, were trumped by a very welcome cup of tea and a piece of cake.
Afterwards Bishop Colin and I stopped off at Radio Oxford for an extended interview with Bill Heine. We were able to give him a thoroughly up-beat account of a very productive day: we had found a lot going on in the Vale but also a lot more planned.
The interview formed the second half of his programme the next morning. You can hear it by going to . http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p025v46j