Ewelme,
Oxfordshire - St Mary Church
Rebuilt 15th century
Click on photos to enlarge.
Notes in italics from Oxfordshire by Jennifer Sherwood and Nikolaus Pevsner
(1974)
Yale University Press, New Haven and London. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An earlier church on the site
dedicated to All Saints was rebuilt c.1432 by the Earl and Countess of
Suffolk. (He was created Duke in 1448. The de la Poles were a merchant
family from Hull. She was the grand-daughter of Geoffrey Chaucer. See
her tomb and effigy below).
The early C14 tower survives from the previous church ... Bell-openings
with cusped Y-tracery, and, unusually, pairs of bell-openings to E and W.
The W window in the middle stage is C15. The outer walls of the church are
of flint and stone set in a chequer part on the E wall; the embattled
parapet is of brick. ... the N porch was rebuilt in 1832 re-using the
original openings. Connected to the tower a covered
passage leading to the almshouses west of
the church. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The doors
are C15, with blind tracery |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The continuation of the
clerestory and the nave arcades into the chancel, unbroken by any chancel
arch, results in a strikingly spacious and unified interior. The only
division between parts of the church is by carved screens ...
The arcades of the chancel open to N and S chapels. That on the S,
dedicated to St John the Baptist, is the chapel of the almshouses.
The chancel and the N side of the nave were begun first ... The mouldings
of the arcades are more elaborate than those on the S, and in the
spandrels are angels bearing shields ... The roof rests on stone figure
corbels ... Screens, C15. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The chancel E window of five
lights has panel tracery ...
Second picture, the west end of the interior with the arch from the early
C14 tower - double-chamfered and half-round responds. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Font. An octagonal bowl on a
base panelled with blind ogee arches. The spectacular wooden cover ... was
presented by John Duke of Suffolk after the death of his mother in 1475.
10½ ft high, it consists of four tiers of
cusped and crocketed arches with the figure of St Michael at the apex. ... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the Chapel of St John is an
impressive display of Late Gothic ornament. ... On the N is the tomb of
the Duchess of Suffolk, with much flamboyant carving, painted and gilded
... The chapel walls are diapered with the
sacred initials I.H.S., with the decorative effect of a Gothic tapestry.
The diapering is repeated on the timber roof, which is enlivened by
feather-bodied angels with outspread wings at the intersection of the
beams. ... Altar in St John's chapel by Sir Ninian Comper, 1902. The
frontal and reredos have holly scrolls and figures on a gold background.
... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alice Duchess of Suffolk, died
1475. (Grand-daughter of Geoffrey Chaucer).
An alabaster effigy with long aristocratic features, like a horse's. She
wears a coronet and simple robes with the Order of the Garter on her left
arm. Pillow supported by four angels under an elaborate canopy. Angels too
under double ogee canopies around the sides of the tomb. Behind the
traceried openings on which the tomb-chest stands is a memento mori, a
wizened cadaver, ... a grim example of
the Late Gothic love of the macabre. ... Much of the colouring on the tomb
is original, and the carving is of the highest quality. ... The canopy has
a deep frieze with half-figures of angels, their wings outspread and over
them a band of quatrefoils and cresting. Four pinnacles on each side of
the tomb bear wooden figures of monks and angels (best
seen on chapel side in previous row). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Chaucer (son
of Geoffrey Chaucer) died 1434 and Matilda Burghersh, his wife,
39 and 38 in. effigies on a tomb-chest with a fine display of heraldic
shields around its sides.
For an extensive scholarly
article on the shields, see here
at the website of the Oxford Architectural and Historical Society. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grave of
the writer Jerome K. Jerome
in the churchyard |
|
|
|
|
|
|