It may be Christmas in ice?

Monday, 13 December 2010 18:23

In the bleak mid-winter

We began our Christmas with Christmas Carols by candlelight in a church on a hill without a village, lights or heating - an experience not to be missed. We had to hike across a couple of fields to get there from the South Oxford Canal at Shipton Bridge. Our thanks to Chris and Joy for the lift to and from Shipton Bridge.

Hampton Gay Church presides over a lost village. The fields here, to the south and south east, have humps and bumps: all that remain of the old village.

 The church of St Giles was built between 1767 and 1772 on the site of a more ancient church. The church was "redesigned" in 1859, but some of the Georgian features remain.

The tower is of Norman style but the stone ball finial and splendid weather vane are Georgian:

The beautiful Georgian west end gallery and the nave, with the coved and panelled ceiling, remain too. You can see that the church ws decked out for Christmas and candles were everywhere.

I was fascinated by the barrel organ - seen above, in the middle of the gallery. The pipes and workings are still there. Its three cylinders only have a limited repertoire of tunes so we sang our carols accompanied by the harmonium in the chancel.

Barrel Organ in the gallery

All that remains of the old church is the splendid Perry Family memorial, now on the south wall. In the churchyard (as above by the tower)  there are some recent graves - one dates from only last year. These contrast with the ancient headstones covered in lichen, their inscriptions unreadable.

So now we are on the countdown to the actual day - snow forecast and the ice around us looks as if it is "for keeps"! However as you know we are stuck in one of the best places we could be, with narrowboat friends all around and shops, buses, Banbury and Oxford all within reach. Convivial company in the evenings and at the weekends mean that my "itchy feet" can be just about be controlled!