When you next visit St Mary’s you might be interested to look a little more closely at the windows in the church.

There are fine, if relatively modern, stained glass lights which tell the bible story.

On the North side of the chancel is the Annunciation; the East window is a Nativity by Kempe dated 1904 and pictures the stable birth of Christ (note the shepherd with bagpipes which were probably in use in Egypt at the time and appear in art music in the middle ages); at the East end of the North Aisle Mary greets her cousin Elizabeth - the prelude to the Magnificat (S. Luke 1 v 39); at the East end of the South Aisle above the altar is Christ being introduced into the temple and to the blind Simeon who declares that his (blind) eyes have seen the salvation of the world and that God can now let his servant depart. I.e. “Nunc dimittis ..(S. Luke 2 v 29)”. Possibly it is Anna in the background of this picture.

The 2 windows on the South side of the Chancel are of Christ’s Baptism (Sanctuary Window) and the Mount of Olives with sleeping disciples and a crowd coming in the distance to take Jesus. (Note however, not to go into the Chancel to see the picture of the Baptism if the notice about security is in place.)

Two of the windows are dedicated to members of the Fox family. In the North Aisle two of Luther Owen Fox’s 11 children are commemorated. These 2 little girls, his only daughters, died so very young. Luther Owen Fox – the village doctor for 51 years – is commemorated himself in the South Aisle twice. The Font was given in his memory but so too the nearby window.

There are 4 pictures telling the story of the Good Samaritan which are in conventional setting. However as Winifred Haward, a great granddaughter, explained in her article in Country Life “the broad brow, aquiline nose and side whiskers, are those of the Doctor going about his business of helping those in need”. The sill of this window also has a plaque (which was engraved for Mrs Owen Fox by Trevor Draycott) dedicated to the last 2 male relatives of Dr Luther Fox. Owen Fox served in the South African Army and was captured at Tobruk and was then a POW in Italy. Denis Fox, a glider pilot, was one of the first to land at Pegasus Bridge during at the D day landings and was later ADC to General Sir Hugh Foot in Cyprus. This probably explains why he was awarded an OBE as a major.

The other 3 stained glass windows are: one of 2 lights in the N Aisle with, on one side, a picture of the descent from the cross with inscription “to him the sins of many” and, on the other, a picture showing the risen Lord appearing to disciples saying “I go to prepare a place for you”. The adjacent window (W end) shows an angel, a winged bull, a winged lion, and a winged eagle with a Lamb above. The Lady Chapel’s southern window is a memorial to Henry Clifton with the Beatitude “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”. It contains 4 symbols of faith. At the bottom are an alpha and omega (Rev 1 v8) and a six pointed Creator star. The 6 points are said to represent the 6 days of the creation but also to represent the attributes of God: power, wisdom, majesty, love, mercy and justice. Although ancient in origin it is now the symbol of modern Israel and known as the Star of David. Above are ancient monograms. The Chi Rho is one of the most ancient and sacred. It was used by early Christians as a secret sign of their faith. The ‘XP’ are the first 2 letters of “XPICTOC” or “Christ”. ‘IHS’ or ‘JHS’ with a horizontal line forming the cross to indicate an abbreviation is another form of the sacred monogram or Christogram based on the first 3 letters of the Greek word for Jesus “IHCOYC” (the ‘C’ being ‘sigma’). ‘JHC’or ‘IHC’, again sometimes with a line across the ‘H’, is another form with the Greek sigma transliterated as a ‘C’ in Latin. Eastern Orthodoxy had the abbreviation ‘ICXC’ using the first and last letters of the 2 words. Sometimes you may find ICXC NIKA to represent ‘Jesus Christ conquers’.

Our windows have examples of some of these symbols. ‘IHS’ has been sometimes intrepreted as: “Iesus Hominum Salvator” or perhaps as, “I Have Suffered” or again as, “In His Service”. The most common Christogram of modern times is “X” which is the Greek letter Chi (see above), as in for example: “X”mas.