John Wilmer was a farmer who worked hard to run his farm in a sustainable manor and make use of natural resources long before it was an in-vogue thing to do. He was also a lovely man who was always thinking of others.This is the eulogy given by h...
This ancient path runs from just inside the south gate to St Mary's up to the Norman door. Grass has been allowed to grow over it now so it is no long visible, which is a pity.
This is the wedding of Gertrude Woodley and Bernard Basson in the last quarter of 1955. The bridesmaids are Jean Elward on the left and her sister Janet on the right.
A Baroque tablet in the Horde Chapel dedicated to Barbara Horde who died in 1671. The chapel is on the south side of the chancel and there are many dedications to members of the Horde family within it.
The Flower Guild of Saint Mary The Virgin Church in Bampton holds a wonderful Flower Festival over the late May Bank holiday each year and 2018 was no exception.
Janet Newman, deputy head at Bampton C of E School took her class up to the ringing chamber for them to see how bells are rung. Most of them went up another floor to see the clock chamber and then up the ladder right into the belfry to see and un...
The majority of the outside scenes filmed for Downton Abbey have been done in Bampton, using St Mary The Virgin Church, the house next door called Church Gate House the home of the fictional Mrs Crawley, the Old Grammar School with its entrance be...
The children of St Mary's Church of England School in Bampton re-enacted a coronation of a queen on July 2nd 2002. Danielle Godwin was the queen and Rev David Lloyd took the 'service' in St Mary's. The children and their pare...
Ray Evans is seen checking the electrics to the Crib for St Mary The Virgin church in 1999. Ray checked all the electrics for the crib, tree and the star. He also made the star and he made the huge cross that stands in the chancel at Easter. Ra...
4 pictures of the children performing in St Mary’s pretending to be evacuees. Bampton had two coachloads from Bow in London during WWII.3 pictures of Bampton School visit to St. Mary's ringing chamber in 1988. The teacher is Mrs Janet Newma...
The children from the village school re-enacted the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Rev. David Lloyd dressed as a bishop and children took the part of the queen and other relevant people, including Rev David's son Andrew who was the cross ...
Rev David Lloyd retired at the end of September 2017 and then an advert and Parish Profile was created. The first entry here is the advert and the remaining 19 pages are the Parish Profile which candidates would have been given. Rev Cannon Janic...
The Friends of St Mary's have recently been arranging a series of 3 talks, one in Feb, March and April to raise funds for the church. This poster was for the Feb 2018 talk entitled"The Graveyard Shift: surgery and body snatching at Guy&...
Lead was stolen from the north side of the aisle of St Mary's and the thieves came back for more about two weeks later. The lead was finally replace and water marked and a security system installed that would light up the roof and speakers w...
Each month, St Mary The Virgin church produced a parish news sheet. The first page is January 2003 gives a round-up of news for 1902. It notes that the war in South Africa is now ended, King Edward VII was crowned on August 9th. Bampton suffered...
When The Friends of St Mary's was formed, a little leaflet was printed to give people an idea of the special features of the church and it named the Patrons who were Sir Ashley Ponsonby Bt., KCVO, MC, The Earl of Donoughmore, The Rt Hon. Doug...
Jason was killed in Afghanistan by a bomb which exploded under the vehicle he was in. Jason was born in Zimbabwe and he and his family escaped from that unhappy place and came to Bampton. Jason went to Burford school where he excelled and was ve...
The Friends of St Mary's have been organising one talk a month for three months from February since 2016. This is the poster for a really interesting talk given by Richard Martin from Filkins Woollen Weavers on April 15th 2018. This is a po...
Rev David Lloyd retired and left St Mary's at the end of September 2017 and thus a period of Interregnum began and lasted until September 9th 2018 when Canon Janice Collier was inducted. This prayer cards was given out to the congregation to...
The bells were rung half muffled in memory of Major Robert Colvile on July 4th 2008. These pictures show the ringers and a group photo with Rosemary Colvile
Phil Addison and his family came to live in Bampton in 1940 to escape the bombing on the south coast. Phil was aged 7 and he stayed in Bampton until 1950 aged 17. He was in the choir of St Mary's and the photograph shows the boys L-R back r...
Bampton Classical Voices sang at St Mary's in December 2017 to celebrate the feast day of St Beornwald, the patron saint of Bampton who is so obscure that nobody knows who he or she was. Bampton Classical Voices was founded by Gilly French a...
This savings account with the Midland Bank was used to earn interest on monies received by the bellringers, for ringing for weddings, who during the period of this savings account used the money to buy new ropes when needed and grease to lubricate...
This is the funeral program from the service in St Mary The Virgin church, Bampton for Molly Daphne Rose, November 26th 1920 to October 16th 2016. See entry 2017.1285 for information about Molly's war work in the ATA. See https://youtu.be/F...
This article comes from The Beam March 2017 issue and documents the theft of lead, twice, from the north aisle of St Mary The Virgin Church. It also give details about the choir, Coffee & Co which began as a way of people forced out of their ...
Bampton Church, St Mary The Virgin and the area around the church have been used in the making of Downton Abbey right from the beginning. These notices were left behind in St Mary's church noticeboard which was called St Michael and All Ange...
The leaflet was produced to explain what needed to be done with the bells of St Mary's and the costs involved. By 1629 Bampton had a ring of six bells, a very early date for a ring of this number. They were probably all cast, or recast, by N...
In October 2016 a Triptych made by the Summertown United Reformed Church was lent to St Mary's. It illustrates all the books of the bible. There was no cost for this, just a request for photographs of people looking at the Triptych.
Water getting into the church of St Mary's proved to be caused by sandbags having been left in the guttering, perhaps from when the roof was re-tiled but that's not certain. The workmen who worked on the roof took my camera up to take t...
Dr Alan Gaydon was churchwarden at St Mary The Virgin for several years and during his tenure the gales of January 25th 1990 blew the stature of John The Baptist off the base of the spire. It impacted into the roof above the organ pipes which res...
Dr Alan Gaydon was a churchwarden at St Mary's for several years. He photographed the church from inside to out, ground level to the roof and recorded the restoration of the top of the spire and re-guilding of the cockerel on the top. Rev A...
The Community Church Council has embarked on an ambitious programme to completely rebuild and extend the 1812 Gray and Davison organ which has been inside St Mary's Church since the 1850s. The present instrument is a development of the origi...
The Flower Guild put on a wonderful flower festival through the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May and on the Monday they also sell sandwiches, quiche slices, cakes, tea, coffee and squash. The money raised ensures we have an excellent flower...
Over the spring Bank Holiday weekend the members of the Flower Guild of St Mary's put on a wonderful Flower Festival in the church. They also work very hard all day on the Monday offering sandwiches, quiche, cakes, orange squash, tea and cof...
Over the late May Bank Holiday weekend the Flower Guild put on a wonderful display of flowers in St Mary's, Bampton. These photograph record their arrangements in 2011. The money raised from donations and their sale of sandwiches, quiche, c...
Over the spring Bank Holiday weekend the members of the Flower Guild of St Mary's put on a wonderful Flower Festival in the church. They also work very hard all day on the Monday offering sandwiches, quiche, cakes, orange squash, tea and cof...
On August 4th 2014, 100 years to the day from the outbreak of World War One, the bells were rung half muffled and a service held at the War Memorial in the Market Square led by Rev. David Battersby. The photographs show the muffs being tied on to...
The church of St Mary The Virgin, vicar Rev. David Lloyd, held their Parish Feast in the grounds of St Mary's. It was much enjoyed and the little children thought the picnic great fun.
This entry includes the service program from Captain Radclyffe's funeral in St Mary The Virgin on February 21st 2017, the announcement of his death in the Witney Gazette and a fond memory of him from Don Rouse recalling when he, along with 10...
This memorial to Harry George Benfield is carved into the base of the front left support of the altar surround in the Lady Chapel. It's right at the bottom facing the north.
Dave Rose and Terry Rouse clocked up 40 years as captain and vice captain of the bellringers at St Mary's at the AGM, third Monday in January, 2014. After the Sunday service they were presented with a bottle of wine each presented by their w...
When Terry Rouse came to Bampton aged 9, he immediately joined the choir of St Mary The Virgin. His father Reg was a bellringer in the church. Terry has served St Mary's his entire life in Bampton. He has variously been a choir boy, bellri...
In July 2011 Carnival Films came back to record some scenes for Downton Abbey's second series. A section of wall in Church Green had fallen shortly before they came and the wall you see in the photograph is very light plastic and a wonderful...
On January 29th 2012 the Bishop came and Confirmed 9 people in Saint Mary The Virgin Church. Ages were from youngsters to senior citizens, so a wonderful cross section of people; three girls, two ladies, three boys and one man. There was a lovel...
Over the spring Bank Holiday weekend the members of the Flower Guild of St Mary's put on a wonderful Flower Festival in the church. They also work very hard all day on the Monday offering sandwiches, quiche, cakes, orange squash, tea and cof...
These pages are extracts from the equivalent of our present-day church Contact magazine. They cover each month through 1903 and here you can read about the restoration of the bells, the planting of the trees down Broad Street, the outings the cho...
With the Royal Wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton due to take place on the following day, April 29th 2011, the children of Bampton C of E Primary School had the great fun of enacting a royal wedding. They went from the school in Bow...
The annual Flower Festival in St Mary's is held each year on the May Bank Holiday when the town is full with people who have come for the Morris Dancing and the Shirt Race. It is the big fund raising event run by the men and women of the flo...
In 2010 the inside of the aisle and chancel roofs was repaired and repainted. Where the roof had been letting water in plaster was loose and in places had fallen off completely. These photographs document the course of the repairs and painting
In 2010 the old oil fired boiler was taken out of the boiler room under the vestry in St Mary's and a new gas fired system was installed. These photograph document the work from the old boiler being dismantled to the new one in place.
The aisle roof of St Mary's was repaired in 2009 and the following year, 2010, the Chancel roof was repaired. The photographs document the progress of the work and the finished article. The new ridge tiles are hollow with an entrance on the...
Major work was done to put the bells of St Mary's in good heart in 2006/7. To celebrate their full restoration a peal was rung and these were the six ringers:- John Napper, Graham Clifton, Clive Holloway, Stephen Goddard, Roger Barnes, John ...
The annual Flower Festival in St Mary's is our big fundraising event to enable us to have flowers in our church all year. Every window, recess, aisle and area has a display and each year has a theme.
This publication was created in 2016 with text by Rev. David Lloyd and photographs by Janet Rouse. It gives an idea of what is to be seen inside St Mary's and some outside items. There has been a church on this site for well over a thousand...
The area around St Mary's, in the churchyard, outside the Grammar School, Church Green and Church View were set up for the filming of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher in October 2010. These photographs document the work of the scene builders.
In 2009 the roof of the aisle of St Mary The Virgin Church was repaired. Sadly, the leaking roof had caused damage on the inside and these photographs tell the story of the repair and repainting of the inside of the roof and repair of some timber.
The old carillon had to be turned off permanently in the end when too many pins on the drum had fallen out and simply would not stay in place when put back. The resulting sound was not good. When the drum rotated, each pin in the drum would trig...
David Byrt revived the choir of St Mary's in 2002 and under his guidance the choir grew in skill and confidence to be able to sing Sung Evensong in Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford and other such places.
This is the pathway from the gate on the south side of St Mary's by Church Gate House to the Norman doorway. Today, it's covered with grass so it's good that someone took this photograph
Lloyd Hughes Owens read through old Vestry minutes and extracted bits he found interesting. They were hand-written notes and the Archive is indebted to Miriam James for typing them out to make life easier for the reader. These extracts are both ...
St Mary's in Bampton has had lead stolen from its roof twice within a month. 27 churches have suffered this in the diocese in the last 6 months. Churches are being urged to have alarms and CCTV fitted. Bampton's church now has alarms;...
In spring 2016 the Friends of St Mary's arranged three talks in St Mary's to help raise funds for the church and this talk by Dr Jeremy Gray on 'Painting The Saints: Miracles, Marvels and Martyrs' in Gothic and Baroque Art.
A concert in St Mary's was to be held on September 11th 2016 - Bernard Rose would have been 100 years old. His wife Molly is still alive (at March 2016)
As reported in the Witney Gazette of December 9th 2015, Bampton Classical Opera Voices: In dulci jubilo! was at St Mary’s Bampton on Monday December 21st 2015 to help the church celebrate St Beornwald’s Day. St Beornwald is a rather obscure saint...
In August 2006 Whites of Appleton came and began the process of removing the front 6 bells. Three had to go to the Whitechapel bell foundry in London for tuning. New wheels, stays, sliders and headstocks were fitted to all 8 bells, the two large...
In 2001 Alan Hardy from the Oxford Archaeological Unit ran a dig in a field just to the west of St Mary's because there were plans to build there. This article from The Beam tells you all about it and the Saxon finds. There is also an artic...
The church organ in St Mary The Virgin Church in Bampton is old. It was built in 1812 and while it has received a few running repairs over the years, it finally got to a stage where it was unreliable and went out of tune within two weeks of being...
On August 30th 1936 there was a Festival Evensong sung in St Mary's dedicated to E. J. Green by his son Warren. Warren was a music scholar and played the organ at St Mary's for many years. He wrote the anthem called 'Thanksgiving&...
On September 10th 2006 Rev. David Lloyd and Jenny celebrated their Silver Wedding and it was also David's 10th year of vicar at St Mary's. Somehow, Suzy managed to get them to pop round to the church where many of us were in waiting to ...
On July 10th 2005 some of our Bampton bellringers celebrated the 60th anniversary of Peace by ringing the bells of St Mary's. Back row left to right are Hilary Openshaw, Carole Perry, Roger and Margaret Barns, Terry Gregory. Front row left ...
In St Mary The Virgin church there is a stained glass window in the Lady Chapel that has Christ plus two female saints, St Catherine and St Frideswide.
The Ride+Stride is a fun day out for all the family that raises fund for historic churches. Ride+Stride is a sponsored bike ride or walk in which people from all over the county of Oxfordshire, walk or cycle between churches, exploring and enjoyi...
The Bampton firemen used their strength to move the church pews to the side of the church leaving a large, square space for dancing. We held a harvest barn dance in St Mary's in September 2003 accompanied by the Woodpeckers
With the rather sad demise of the Bampton branch of the WI the lovely banner, made by Pat Barratt, was officially welcomed and hung in Saint Mary's in Bampton. One picture shows the diminished group of ex Bampton members attending the little...
Apart from the War Memorial in the Market Square there is a memorial in the Post Office (centre room of the Town Hall) and three more in St Mary's. These photographs are all for men who died in the First World War. One of the two in church ...
When ringing was allowed once more after years of silence during WWII Ted Dixey learnt to ring. His life-long friend Jack Joyce was a ringer and sextan and Ted enjoyed joining him in the belfry. After 50 years of ringing the Bampton ringers arra...
As part of 4 days of celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II there was a service of thanksgiving, held nationwide on Tuesday June 5th 2012. This is the service booklet that was used in St Mary's on the morning.
The two newspaper cuttings, found in an old book in a second hand book shop, give a report of the AGM of St Mary The Virgin and report on a caravan fire at St Mary's Trailer court. The church report mentions the moving on of the vicar, Rev....
There was a gypsy funeral in September 1967 attended by approximately 300 mourners who came from Northamptonshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire and Warwickshire. Mr Tom Smith aged 59, son of a Gypsy Queen. Tom had affectionately been know...
In July 1968 St Mary The Virgin Church held a three day festival which included a flower festival in the church, a special service for the handicapped under the auspices of the Oxfordshire branch of the British Red Cross. There was a choral and i...
The Roman Catholics in Bampton had been forced to worship in various places in Bampton through the twentieth century including the Town Hall and the room in the old Grammar School now housing our library. This room was for hire and could have bee...
Margaret Mary Smith was born on January 8th 1942 and died just before Christmas on December 20th 2015; a service of Thanksgiving was held on January 6th 2016. Margaret was a most delightful person, married to Morris Dancer Cyril Smith for many de...
Ladies from the Mother's Union serve teas at the Flower Festival in St Mary's c2000. Mrs Frances Money in the purple beret and her daughter-in-law Madeleine in the pink blouse. Enjoying a cup of tea is Stuart Pearce (d. Jan 2017)
These two photographs were taken by Margaret Chaundy and show two flower arrangements in the Flower Festival in St Mary's 2000. One arrangements recalls the amazing achievement of Ellen MacArthur sailing around the world single handed in Kin...
