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St Michael’s, Cumnor
An impressive medieval church with the remains of a Norman corbel table on the south wall of the nave, and a square crenellated tower dating from the early thirteenth century.
Inside, as well as the architecture, there are a whole range of individual treasures. One that
catches the eye is an almost-life-sized statue of (as the Preface to the Authorized Version has it), ‘that bright Occidental star, Queen Elizabeth of most happy memory’, otherwise Elizabeth I. The statue is thought originally to have been commissioned by her favourite the Earl of Leicester when he owned Cumnor Place. The actual steward of Cumnor Place at the time, Anthony Forster, who as the fictional ‘Foster’ was represented in Scott’s Kenilworth to have played an active and malignant role in the mysterious death of Amy Robsart, is more fairly commemorated by a fine Purbeck monument with inlaid brasses to himself and his wife.
St Michael’s has evidently had a number of wealthy patrons, but other individual memorials have a more personal local touch. One of these is a brass wall tablet of the early seventeenth century commemorating James Welsh (d. 1612) and his wife Margery, who survived him. The tablet, in somewhat laboured verse, acclaims the virtues of James who ‘for the poore did Christianly provide, /Accordinge to the talent God had lent, /Five poundes he gave, of zeale and good intent.’ The lines on James are well spaced; a second section below, lined a little more tightly, tells us that Margery enlarged his gift ‘With five pounds added to his five, unto her Christian fame’. The monies had been deposited with the local clergy, and she set out clearly what was to happen, that ‘…yearly to the poore of Comner be a marke of silver payd/Which is the full apoynted rent, of the whole bequeathed some/And so for ever shall remayne, until the day of dome;/In Comner for the poores releife, Margery Welsh doth will,/The charge of this when she is deade, may be performed stille.’
Judgement Day has not yet arrived, but it seems improbable that James and Margery’s ten pound donation can still be yielding fruit—however, one must give her full marks for determination.
I was also very taken by a second memorial, this time to a Cumnor-born ‘shipwright and marriner’, Norris Hodson, who died aboard the Gloucester ‘in the squadron commanded by Commander Anson’ on 14 June 1741. According to his epitaph here, he ‘was buried in the great South Sea in the hope of a joyfull Resurrection when the sea shall give up her dead’. The memorial tablet was (according to the inscription) ‘erected at the sole expense of Mr. John Quainton’ in 1743, although there is nothing further to explain the link between the two.
St Laurence, Appleton
Another medieval church, with a tower that has undergone some changes. It was apparently heightened in the fifteenth century, and then gained a lantern in the mid nineteenth century when the number of bells was increased from eight to ten.
Inside the church is aisled, with late-twelfth-century round pillars marking out a north aisle. It was apparently extended east around 1612 by Sir Richard Fettiplace, and a century later a graceful wooden arcade was installed to separate this space from the chancel. There are also two more recent additions that are worth noting: a stained-glass window commemorating Sir Basil Blackwell and his wife, and a distinctly unusual iron grave-marker for Alfred White (d. 1876) in the churchyard.
This has an iron ring with ten bells in the surround. Alfred (born at Appleton in 1804) was a bellhanger, son of a blacksmith, and founder of the firm Whites of Appleton, according to their website the oldest continously-trading bellhanging company in the country. And Alfred had another important local connection: he was the proprietor of the Greyhound at Besselsleigh.
St Lawrence, Besselsleigh
Besselseigh Park was once the site of a manor owned by Mr Speaker Lenthall of the Long Parliament. (Before that, as recent archaeological excavations have shown, there was a much earlier medieval settlement on the wider site.) The church itself sits within the park the churchyard protected from grazing sheep by a drystone wall. There is still a side gate into the manor grounds, and beyond it you can see a single surviving pier of what was the gatehouse in William Lenthall’s day.
The church is medieval (you can see a Norman doorway on the north side), but it was refurbished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the Lenthall family. It is generally locked, although if you ever do see inside you will a painted tympanum across the nave with the arms of the Lenthall family. However, even the exterior is worth seeing to get a feel of its relation to the park and manor.
By Elizabeth Knowles
About the Author
Elizabeth Knowles is a renowned library researcher and historical lexicographer who devoted three decades of her career to Oxford University Press. Her time at OUP began with contributions to the OED Supplement and the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Subsequently, she spearheaded the Quotations publishing program, solidifying her reputation as a leading expert in quotations and lexicography.
In 1999, Knowles assumed the prestigious role of Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, a position she held continuously until her retirement from OUP in 2007. Under her editorial guidance, the eighth edition was published in 2014, marking a significant milestone in the dictionary’s history.
Knowles is a prolific writer and lecturer on the history of quotations and dictionaries. She has shared her extensive knowledge with both academic and general audiences, significantly enhancing our understanding of the role of quotations in language.
Beyond her work on the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Knowles is also the editor of “What They Didn’t Say: A Book of Misquotations” (2006) and “How To Read a Word” (2010). Her work continues to inspire and inform scholars, writers, and readers fascinated by the English language.
Churches visited on this route