Holy Rood Church

A selection of photographs showing the

interior of Buckland Newton’s parish

church

On the west wall of the north side aisle (to the left of the Plush door) is a board containing the names of all the vicars of Buckland Newton up to 2002; on a separate board are recorded Rev Karen Curnock and Rev Canon Jonathan Still, the current incumbent. Of interest is the description ‘intruders’ given to the three vicars at the time of Oliver Cromwell. A curious Poor Box by the Plush door is 16th century and the Font is a Century older still, the same age as the Nave itself. Over the door is set what is perhaps the oldest piece of stone carving in these parts - Saxon 7th or 8th century. It was found in the garden of the Vicarage (now Buckland Newton Place) in 1926, and may be secular rather than religious, although it has been suggested it represents St. Thomas, holding his symbol of a spear. A brass plate on the west wall commemorates in Latin Thomas Barnes who was a 17th century ancestor of the Dorset poet William Barnes. William Barnes himself attended the reopening of the church in 1878. The altar and reredos (the panel behind the altar) were designed by Mr Tolhurst of Mowbrays and dedicated in 1927. The reredos consists of three panels. On the left is depicted the Nativity, with Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus. The central panel depicts the Resurrection: Jesus rising from the dead, with an angel and two of the soldiers who had been set to guard the tomb where Jesus was buried after the crucifixion. The right-hand panel shows the scene at Pentecost (Whitsun) when the Holy Spirit was bestowed on the disciples and appears as a dove and tongues of fire touching the heads of the disciples and Mary the mother of Jesus. There are twelve disciples once more; Judas Iscariot - who betrayed Jesus and committed suicide - having been replaced by Matthias. The west window (by Kempe) under the tower showing St Gabriel, St Michael & St Raphael, is in memory of Canon Ravenhill (Vicar 1860-1907) who directed the last restoration and was Rural Dean for twenty-five years.