|
The Church of the Holy Rood Ampney Crucis |
|
||
|
Contents:
|
|
||
|
The Parish of Ampney Crucis is one of five parishes within a benefice served by one priest. The other parishes are Ampney St Peter & St Mary, Poulton, Harnhill and Driffield. The parish lies within the Fairford Deanery and within the Diocese of Gloucester. The church is dedicated to the Holy Rood, an ancient term for the Holy Cross. Services are held according to an annual schedule set for the entire benefice. This schedule provides for a 10.00 am sung service, generally including the Eucharist, at one of the benefice churches in turn each Sunday. There is also an 8.00 am said Eucharistic service at one of the other churches on most Sundays. A variety of other services also occur at different times. At Festivals, there are normally additional services. The activities of the church in the parish take place under the guidance and decision of the Parochial Church Council, normally chaired by the Rector, and consisting of the Churchwardens, a Secretary, a Treasurer and several regular members. Meetings of the Council are private. The Council has an Annual General Meeting open to the public in April each year. The parish maintains an electoral roll, membership of which qualifies parishioners to vote at the AGM.
|
|||
|
The following table summarises the income and expenditure of the parish in recent years: |
|||
|
|
|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
|
Income |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Planned Giving |
5592 |
5417 |
8938 |
|
|
Collections/Alms box |
2800 |
5204 |
1549 |
|
|
Other donations |
1452 |
3853 |
6826 |
|
|
Income tax recovered |
1972 |
1673 |
2072 |
|
|
Specified collections |
860 |
568 |
819 |
|
|
Events/activities |
3093 |
1907 |
2264 |
|
|
Other Income |
1818 |
744 |
2465 |
|
|
TOTAL |
17587 |
19366 |
24933 |
|
Expenditure |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Diocesan Quota |
9960 |
9687 |
10804 |
|
|
Church Running |
1848 |
2898 |
2734 |
|
|
Clergy expenses |
1617 |
1874 |
2587 |
|
|
Major repairs |
684 |
- |
5890 |
|
|
Grants made |
1209 |
748 |
854 |
|
|
Other expenses |
2175 |
603 |
602 |
|
|
TOTAL |
17493 |
15810 |
23471 |
|
Description
of the Church |
|
The dedication of this church to the Holy Rood (Holy Cross) is rare and ancient. At the time of the Doomsday Survey in the year 1086, the village was already known as Holy Rood Omenie (Ampney), the name Ampney being taken from the name of the brook. |
|
The cross in the churchyard, which dates from about 1415, reflects the dedication of the church. There are detailed drawings of the four faces of this cross inside the church. The condition of the carvings of the cross is good, mainly because the top of the cross was saved from damage by the iconoclasts of the seventeenth century by being walled up inside the Rood Loft staircase. It was re-discovered there in 1840 and re-installed on the pedestal in about 1860. There is the remnant of a possibly earlier cross, without its top, at the end of Church Walk – opposite the church gate. |
|
Inside the church is a list of the Rectors of Ampney Crucis from the year 1304. Nearby there is also a plan of the church showing the period of construction of the various parts of the church. |
|
Immediately opposite the porch door, which itself dates from the early fourteenth century, is a Saxon doorway, now blocked up and with a threshold about two feet above the floor of the current church. Perhaps this doorway is the remnant of an earlier church, which stood at that level though this is not actually known. This north wall of the church also has a splayed Norman window and the remnant of another one to the east. The other Norman features of the church are the fine chancel arch, with its chevron design, and the font under the tower arch. |
|
The rest of the building has been added at various periods. The North transept, the crossing of the nave, the doorway inside the porch and the chancel are largely from the Early English period; several of the windows and the tower are of the later Decorated and Perpendicular periods. On the east wall of the tower can be seen the line of an earlier roof – the existing one is probably fifteenth century. As with many Cotswold churches, each gable has a carved stone cross at the apex. In the south wall of the chancel is an old priest’s door, now no longer used. |
|
There are a number of interesting detailed features, both outside and inside the church. On the right side of the porch entrance is an old scratch dial, used to indicate the times when Mass would have been said. On the south side of the church tower is the trace of an old sundial. The tower has a peel of six bells. One of these is pre-Reformation and has on it in Latin the lovely words ’Pure Gracious Virgin take into Thy care all those who I may call together here’. There is a late Norman pillar piscina in the chancel and another piscina in the wall of the North transept, indicating that this transept was once a chapel. The carved door behind the fifteenth century pulpit used to lead to a rood loft in the chancel arch, probably removed at the Reformation. |
|
In the North transept is the beautiful tomb of George Lloyde, who died in 1584, and his wife. They lived at Ampney Park. The estate was sold to the Pleydell family. There are four memorial tablets to the Pleydell family in the South transept and two in the vestry. Also in the vestry is the memorial stone to Viscount Downe, a member of the family, who was a professional soldier, served at the court of George II and was killed at the battle of Kampen in 1760. In the seventeenth century, the Pleydell family founded the educational trust named after them, which still provides substantial support to the village school and students from the village. Subsequent owners of Ampney Park included the Blackwell family, to whom there are several memorial tablets near the high altar, and the Cripps family which helped to renovate the church in the early twentieth century. The beautiful windows on the South side of the chancel, made by the noted firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne, are a memorial to a member of the Cripps family. |
|
In the Middle Ages, the church walls were largely covered in paintings. Some of these remain, especially in the North transept. In the nineteenth century, before the nave paintings were lost, the signature of a painter was to be seen by a figure of St Christopher on the North wall – Thomas, ye paintere of Malmseburie – the only known signed wall painting in England. There are remnants of the paintings on the timbers of the nave roof and in the South transept. The figures in the North transept include St Helena, St Paul (with a sword), St James the Great, an Archbishop, a Bishop and the remnants of a painting of St Edward the Confessor, only elsewhere depicted in a parish church at Faversham in Kent. There are also numerous fleurs de lys and other decorative forms. Further restoration of these paintings is planned when funds are available. |
|
The churchyard includes a number of old tombs, and is the burial site of two Royalist soldiers killed during the Civil War. |
|
On leaving the church, you may wish to note the invocation framed inside the porch: Pause ’ere thou enter traveller and, bethink thee, how holy yet how homelike is this place; Time that thou spendest here will link thee with men unknown who were once of thy race; This is thy Father’s house, to Him address thee, who here His children worship face to face; He at thy coming in peace will bless thee, thy going out make joyful with His Grace. |
|
Baptisms, Burials, Marriages & Memorials The registers maintained in the parish include: Baptisms from 1930 to the present Marriages from 1986 to the present Burials from 1903 to the present Banns read in church from 1997 to the present
Earlier registers, which provide a largely complete record from 1559, are deposited at the County Record Office in Gloucester: Telephone: 01452-425295 |
|
The church and churchyard contain memorials to a number of former parishioners.
Memorials inside the church include: |
|
|
S E Smith Adee, 1747 Maria Adee, his wife, died 10th July, 1729
Samuel Blackwell, died 30th April, 1783 Jonathan Blackwell, died 24th March 1819 George Graham Blackwell, died 30th March 1838 Emma Jane Graham Blackwell, died 2nd April 1840 George Wilmot Blackwell, died 19th May 1850, at Malta, while serving on HMS Caledonia Eardley John Blackwell, died in Norway 15th December 1866 Elizabeth Emma Blackwell, died 7th April, 1891 |
E William Cripps, died 15th December, 1899, window memorial, North Transept restoration
Ada Cripps, his wife, died 16th August, 1933, altar rail Frederick William Beresford Cripps, 1961, reredos Constance Agnes Cripps, his wife
John Doran, Sergeant RMLI, killed in action at Grenay, France 21st July 1916 Sir Henry Pleydell Dawnay Bt, Viscount Downe, killed in action at the battle of Kampen, 1761 |
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth Dunn, 1878, window
Robert Berkeley Freeman Gent, died 25th June 1782 Anne Gent, his wife, died 15th June 1763
Edward Robert Gifford, drowned in HMS Eurydice 24th March 1878, window memorial Robert Francis, Lord Gifford, died 13th May 1872, window memorial Frederica Charlotte Fitshardinge Gifford, died 27th November 1920
|
Freda Faith Lawrence, wife of the Rev F H Lawrence, church organ restored 1923
Sir John Buck Lloyd, died 30th October, 1952 Daisy Methuen Buck Lloyd, his wife, died 3rd March 1942 James Buck Lloyd, killed in action in Tunisia, 5th February, 1943
George Lloyd and his wife, carved tomb with reclining effigies, buried 10th October 1584
Charles William Messenger, died 17th November 1900 |
|
|
|
|
(Link to photos of Pleydell Memorials)
Susanna Robert Pleydell, died 1642 Robert Pleydell, died 1642 John Pleydell, died 1645 Robert Pleydell, died 26th September, 1676 Robert Pleydell, died 22nd March 1719; records his establishment of the Pleydell Trust, which continues to support the education of village schoolchildren
|
Thomas Powell, Vicar of this Parish, died 19th December, 1764 Margaret Maria Powell, his wife, died 16th November 1781 John Powell, died on the coast of Abyssinia, 15th July 1762 Sussanah Powell, died 11th August, 1758 Elizabeth Powell, died 3rd October, 1769 |
|
|
|
|
John Radway, died 30th July, 1784 Sarah Radway, his wife, died 12th September, 1783 Mary Radway, their daughter, wife of Charles Radway, died 23rd May, 1785 Maria Radway, second wife of Charles Radway, died 6th August, 1837 Richard Radway, son of Charles and Mary, who died in infancy Charles Ballenger Radway, died 1st April, 1860 Jane, his wife, died 20th February, 1831 Jane Wood Radway, their daughter, who died in infancy Mary, second wife of Charles Ballenger Radway, died 26th November, 1838 Ann, his third wife, died 13th November, 1885 |
Alexander Scott Ronald, killed in action in Algiers 8th November, 1942
Dorothea Johnannes Sanders, 6th October, 1674
Sarah Selfe, died 2nd January, 1801
William Smith, died 1st December, 1859 Maria, his wife, died 3rd December, 1844 Anne, his second wife, died 22nd July, 1873
Henry Ward, died 2nd July 1760 |
|
Others who were killed in the two World Wars, and whose names are recorded on the Rolls of Honour, include:
|
|
|
First World War
Sydney George Barnfield Wilfred Barton Ernest William Cooper John Doran John Charles Edwards Reginald Charles Freebury Frederick Geeves Abel Herbert Thomas Hopkins Cecil Humphries Frank William Large Ernest Frederick Larner Rex Hamilton Leyland Buck Lloyd Richard Poole William Robins Scott Ronald Ernest Soul Frederick Charles Symonds Philip Henry Symonds |
Second World War
Buck Lloyd Philip Munday Reginald Poole Scott Ronald
|
|
The church maintains a Book of Remembrance containing the names of those whose ashes have been interred in the Churchyard.
|
|
The North Transept of the church has remnants of medieval wall paintings which English Heritage is keen to conserve. A programme of work began in 1997 with this end in view. The paintings were stabilized where the plaster was coming away from the wall and damp penetration from the roof was addressed. In mid-2003, the roof will be stripped down and be entirely re-tiled. The condition of the paintings themselves will be re- analyzed and the moisture content of the walls monitored for one year. Ground level drainage will then be improved and a programme worked up for subsequent conservation work and installation of lighting to permit better viewing of these paintings.
|
|
There is a peal of six bells, which are regularly rung by a team of local bell ringers. The tenor bell is of pre-Reformation manufacture (prior to 1537), the other five date from 1620, 1630, 1660, 1780 and one of unknown age. |