Ashendon

The building

St Mary's church stands on high ground on the southwest side of the village. The earliest part of the church is the nave, built in the 12th century and having, at that time, a narrow south aisle that was lengthened, together with the nave in around 1200. About 90 years later the chancel and the old part of the south aisle was widened. Towards the close of the 15th century the west tower was built and a clerestory added to the nave, which had, at that time, a northeast chapel. The chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century.

In the 800 years it has stood here, many changes have taken place in our national history: plague, civil war and industrial revolution have all played their part and during all that time people have turned to it for spiritual comfort.

 

Looking up the nave

Where we are...


View Ashendon, St Mary's Church in a larger map

Church is open for private prayer

The church will be open daily for private prayer from 10am to 4pm.

Please note the instructions on entry and maintain social distancing.


Compline / Evening prayer

Please join Jenny and Peter for a short service of Compline

Each Sunday at 6pm.

You can join either using the internet or by telephone.

Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 565 217 9673
 
Or by telephone dial either
020 3481 5240 or  020 3051 2874
When asked, enter the meeting id on your phone keypad: 565 217 9673#

Church opennings

The ability of churches to open for private prayer is now become irregular.  This is because of the rules affecting churches that are now returning to services in Church. 

These rules mean that churches have to be locked for 72 hours either side of a service.

Ashendon, Brill, Ludgershall and Wotton will have days where they will be open for private prayer.  But this will change as the return to church based worship evolves.   Please talk to your local churchwarden or to Jenny for more information.


Returning to church based worship

The good news is that we are allowed to return to worship in churches under strict rules.

However, the rules require that we maintain social distancing within the church.  This limits the size of the congregation and how we can conduct the services.

Given this situation we are not advertising our services on the web (for once, we do not want to encourage large congregations).

For details of services around the benefice, please see the current edition of the Bernwode News, contact the local churcharden(s) or talk to Jenny.


The vacancy

As you will be aware, Priscilla has now retired and has left the benefice.

With that, we have now started the process of finding a new priest to fill the vacancy.   It can take time to find the right candidate for the post (before Priscilla arrived, the previous vacancy had lasted  some 15 months).

In the meantime Jenny will be supporting the benefice together with an array of retired and visiting clergy to take our services.

If you have a question, we recommend that a Churchwarden should be the first port of call, if appropriate to your circumstances.  You can find the list of Churchwardens in Who's Who.


Churchwardens

Peter Smettem
01296 651 598
Imogen Holbrook
01296 651 453

Local activities

Coffee morning: 1st Tuesday of the month in the Village Hall between 10.30am and noon. Contact Jenny for more details.

Home group: Every two weeks on a Thursday evening at 8pm. Contact Jenny for more details.

Local websites

Pollicott Belles Cycle Challenge
Ashendon village website
Ashendon Women's Institute
Ashendon (civil) Parish Council