Stories about Banburyshire Churches

The Saxon Princess and Her Infant Saint: Stories from the treasury of Four Shires churches by Graham Wilton

I wonder how many local residents there are out there who (like me) have little idea of the wonderful treasures sitting right on our doorstep, waiting to be discovered. This little book has opened my eyes.

The author has visited a number of churches in the villages surrounding Banbury, all shown on my map below, and also Dorchester Abbey (not included on the map as it's south of Oxford). You can tell how much I enjoyed the book - it took me ages to put the map together; that's dedication for you!

View The Saxon Princess Map in a larger map

These small parish churches have a wealth of history, architecture, beautiful stained glass windows, medieval wall paintings, Civil War history, grotesque gargoyles, 18th-century graffiti, a font dating from 1100AD, and so much more. The book is lavishly illustrated with lots of colour photos; taken on different cameras, some photos are superb, whereas others just do a good job of illustrating the text. The author has sounded out some really interesting bits of local history about each parish church.

Amongst my favourites from the book is St. Peter's at South Newington - now firmly on my list of churches to explore to see the gory Thomas a Becket wall paintings:

Another one on my must see list is St. Mary Magdalene Church at Helmdon to admire the medieval stained glass windows:

Copies of the book are just £5 (plus £2.00 P&P if required) and are available from Books & Ink Bookshop - 01295 709769