ST MARY the VIRGIN Overseas It Was Often Very Difficult to Transport His Body Home, So It Was a RARE ‘HEART STONE’ Usually Buried on Foreign Soil

Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust Supporting Oxfordshire’s Churches since 1964

HAMPTON POYLE: When a knight died on a battlefield ST MARY THE VIRGIN overseas it was often very difficult to transport his body home, so it was A RARE ‘HEART STONE’ usually buried on foreign soil. But sometimes the dead man had willed Have you any idea what a heart that his heart should be removed and burial is? returned to his own village church in You will gain a better idea if, on your England for burial. It is believed this Ride or Stride, you manage to get to request was usually carried out. the small and rather tucked-away In Oxfordshire there are other church of St. Mary at Hampton Poyle examples of what are thought to near Kidlington. be heart burials at Buckland near On the north side – the side farthest Faringdon, and the nearby church of away from the door – you will see an St George at Hatford. arched recess, and inside it a stone about 21 inches long and 10 inches deep and 6 inches high. Its carved front is decorated with what look like 13 miniature ‘pillars’.

It is know by the worshippers at the church as ‘the heart stone’ and it is believed that it is a rare example of a heart burial.

There is much mystery attached to heart burials. They are thought to date from the time of the Crusades, when knights went out with their retinues from England and France to fight in what we now call the Middle East.

The stone that is thought to have contained a heart burial

Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust • ohct.org.uk