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I know whenever we visit a country anywhere in Europe that we’ll see many very old churches. That’s a given.
And I know I’ll get photos of yet another very old church. That’s also a given.
I’m a sucker for old church architecture.
This is a photo of the interior of The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, a Church of England parish church in Bampton, England. The church was built in the 10th or 11th century and was rebuilt in the 12th century, with the original tower surviving.
A 1,000-year-old church building seems impressive, especially considering that the United States is less than 250 years old. But we’ve visited many churches in France, Germany, the Czech Republic and elsewhere in England that are as old or older. It seems as if there’s at least one in just about every small community throughout Europe.
So there’s nothing special or particularly historic about this church.
Except …
How about the fact that The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is a 1,000-year-old church that has become a 21st-century television star and earned a place in popular culture?
Saint Mary's is used as the set of Saint Michael and All Angels' Church in the mega-hit British and PBS television series Downton Abbey. The rectory adjacent to St. Mary’s, the 16th-century Churchgate House, is used as the set of Crawley House, the residence of Isobel and Matthew Crawley in the TV series.
And that’s why we were there. Well, sort of, anyway.
We joined a Viking River Cruise in France during the summer of 2018 and we added an extension to Oxford, England, a trip created for those who watched Downton Abbey. It included visits to several locations tied to the program. My wife and I had never seen Downton Abbey. We had no clue what the show was about, although we had heard it was very good. And we were the only ones out of more than 20 people who booked the extension who weren’t enthusiastic followers of Downton Abbey. We booked the extension because visiting the Oxford area sounded like fun.
I was expecting to be completely lost and possibly bored when we visited the Downton locations over our three-day stay.
Turns out I was only somewhat lost — just when our guides mentioned the name of a character or cited an event from Downton Abbey. And I definitely wasn’t bored.
The Downton-related locations and the many other locations we visited that weren’t tied to Downton Abbey were fantastic. The historic significance of the sites was very interesting.
Now, seven years later, we still haven’t seen Downton Abbey. Maybe one day …
A bit about the photo:
I liked how the natural light from the stained-glass window illuminated the interior of the church, creating a nice blend of highlights and shadows that I knew would make an interesting photograph. I walked around and found several places to stand for interesting photographs, including this shot showing the church’s aisle, pews, altar and stained-glass window framed by a stone arch. But I didn’t want a photo showing a crowd of tourists standing between me and the window. So I grabbed some other shots as people began to leave.
I loitered until the remaining visitors returned to the tour bus, then took several quick shots from each location I had selected (I wanted to have some backups in case something went wrong, because this was a hand-held shot at a somewhat slow shutter speed) before running to the bus. I didn’t want to be left behind in Bampton.
The chapel inside The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Bampton, Oxfordshire, England, is illuminated by light filtering through a stained glass window.