OXFORD DIOCESE PILGRIM PROJECT OXFORD DIOCESE PILGRIM PROJECT

You might also like to visit other nearby Oxford Diocese Pilgrim Project: churches in the Pilgrim Project: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Mary, North Marston Richard Hooker’s Church MK18 3PH St Peter and St Paul, Olney Website: www.schorneteam.co.uk ‘Amazing Grace’ www.northmarston.org/church St Peter ad Vincula, South Newington Exceptional medieval wall paintings PILGRIMAGE PRAYER

Pilgrim God, You are our origin and our destination. Travel with us, we pray, in every pilgrimage of faith, and every journey of the heart. Give us the courage to set off, the nourishment we need to travel well, and the welcome we long for at our journey’s end. So may we grow in grace and love for you and in the service of others. through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen

 John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

Illustrations by Brian Hall © North Marston Our journey starts where many pilgrimages ended, at the Schorne Well which lies a couple of hundred yards to the south of the church. John Schorne was the Rector here from 1290 to 1314. He was a saintly man and is believed to have created a spring that became the source of the holy well by striking the ground with his staff. The waters were believed to have miraculous curative powers and after Schorne’s death, North Marston became the third most visited pilgrimage site in the country. Pray for those in need of healing today, whether in body, mind or spirit.

If we walk to the south porch and look up we can a memorial to John Schorne. You can see at the This is one of the most glorious chancels in see that all around the chancel are 37 finely carved bottom of the east wall of this chapel a recess. . Beautiful stonework, a huge stone heads called grotesques and these are It appears to be a reliquary set into the wall east window and an elaborate reredos. This matched by twelve more grotesques around the and may once have housed Schorne’s bones. was Queen Victoria’s gratitude after a local top of the tower. We can also see embattlements A John Schorne commemorative panel sits in miser left her his entire fortune in his will. and pinnacles. This is very sumptuous work and the window of the chapel. Give thanks for those She commissioned one of the country’s best a sign of major commitment in times gone by. who have passed the torch of faith to you. Pray architects to renovate the chancel in memory of Now go outside and follow the south wall of What we are entering is a church that started for those with whom you can share your faith in her benefactor, John Camden Nield. Think for a the church eastwards and we’ll find a priest’s off plain and simple but that has been lovingly turn. moment about where you store your ‘treasure’. door. Look at the stonework on each side of and elaborately dressed over the centuries. Give Pray that you will live generously. the door and see the remnants of several mass thanks for those who have loved and cared for In the late 15th century, Schorne’s relics dials scratched by priests in medieval times this church over the centuries. Pray for the church were removed from this church to a shrine Although smaller, the memorial window set in before they had clocks. They helped the priest community today – and those still to come. in St George’s Chapel at Windsor. By way of the north aisle wall betters the Nield window in to measure the interval between the masses compensation, the Dean of Windsor paid to its beauty and simplicity, especially viewed from by using the shadow cast by sunlight on a peg Step into the church through the south door have North Marston church refined, and that outside as the sun streams into the church through placed in a hole in the wall. They were scratched and look to your right: you will see a small accounts for much of the grandeur outside. Give the nave’s clerestory windows. It commemorates here around 600 years ago. Give thanks for our chapel. This chapel was originally dedicated to thanks for the gift of creativity, for the craftsmen the wife of a local businessman. Remember with clergy and all those who help lead worship in the Virgin Mary but it has subsequently become whose skill have enriched this church. gratitude those you have loved but see no more. this and your own community.