St Mary's Church Garsington
The first record of a priest in Garsington is about 1160, around the time when the tower, the earliest part of the present church, was built. However, archaeological evidence confirms the existence of a smaller earlier church on this site, whose foundation may have been a century before. Wallingford Priory had the right to appoint the priest at Garsington until its dissolution under Henry VIII in 1524. After the Reformation, the right to appoint the priest passed to the newly founded Trinity College in Oxford. They bought the land opposite the entrance to the church and used it to build a large house to which the whole college could retreat in times of plague. Later this became the home of curates.
The President of Trinity College was, ex officio, the Rector of Garsington, until 1871 when a new act of Parliament prevented rectors from having more than one church.The Revd James Ingram, who became President of Trinity in 1824, took a serious interest in the parish. Under his supervision a village school was erected in 1840, and a complete restoration of the church was undertaken from 1848. The first Rector after the 1871 Act was the Trinity College mathematician, the Rev David Thomas. He had the old Tudor Rectory demolished, and today only the stone doorway in Southend opposite the lych gate remains of it.
St Mary’s Church tower was part of the original late 12c Church. Apart from the tower, there is little left of this early building, which would have had a chancel, nave and tower. The North Aisle and present Chancel are from the late 13c. They are considered a fine example of the transition from the Early English to the Decorated style of architecture. The South Aisle was added in the early 14c. A wooden porch over the south door was provided in Tudor Times but replaced in the 19c by the present porch. In the 15c the nave roof was raised and the clerestory added, bringing more light into the church. The whole church was re-roofed and re-paved in the 19c restoration. The altar stone is original, having been rediscovered and restored to its present position during the 19c restoration. The stained glass of the East Window and of the armorial patterns in the chancel windows is Victorian.
The font is a Victorian copy of the 13c font at Weston, Lincolnshire, given in 1846 replacing an 18c font. The wainscot pulpit and reading desk date from the Victorian restoration. The carved oak reredos of 1912 was commissioned in memory of the Revd David Thomas. There is a peal of six bells. The oldest, the Treble, was cast in 1696, and the most recent, the Tenor, in 1788. The bells were retuned and rehung in 2013. The clock in the tower is noteworthy, for while the clock has two faces, with each face being marked in quarter hours, there is only just a single hour hand, with only the hour being chimed on the tenor bell.
There are three public footpaths leading to St Mary's, including one which passes by the old Garsington "Woody Woodpecker - Reincarnated" Cache. Parking is not easy, but there is space for a car just to the side of the Church Lych Gate entrance, or very limited parking in Pettiwell, opposite the Public Footpath.To find the Cache you don't need to enter the Church grounds, but you do need to stay within the newly fenced Public Footpath which surrounds the Church. You are looking for a small camouflaged (unused !) sample container. It is fairly well hidden from muggle eyes, please replace precisely as found. Unfortunately, due to it's proximity to the Oxfordshire LQ Cache, it was not possible to place this Cache any closer to the Church. But time and visibility allowing, do walk on through the gate into the Churchyard, the view is well worth the detour.
Congratulations to Go Catch on yet another FTF. As they say on telly's "Eggheads", who will ever beat him?
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