SHIPLAKE, Oxfordshire – St Peter and St Paul. 

Memorial cross 1908; Chapel restoration, memorial frame and altar 1920

The Henley and South Oxford Standard of 13 November 1908, reported on the dedication of the memorial cross.  It is situated in the churchyard, and is in memory of Alice Grenville Phillimore, second daughter of the right Honourable Sir R. Phillimore, Bart.  George Fellowes Prynne was present.

The Cross…although similar in character to the crosses which were placed in so many churchyards in the 14th and 15th centuries, is yet original in treatment.  The lower base or pavement is in blue Pennant stone, and is circular on plan, 14 feet in diameter.  The superstructure is carried out in beautiful warm yellow Guiting stone.  The first step or stage, which is octagonal on plan, forms a broad seat at the foot of the Cross, to which the second step forms a back.  On the third stage an inscription occupies the eight sides…the actual base stone of the Cross is square on plan, with…inscription on the four sides.   Above this inscription are four elaborately carved panels… A tapering shaft, nine feet high, with carved patterae at the angles, is surmounted by a carved capital, on the top of which are placed four angels holding shields with emblems of the Passion, symbolically upholding the Cross…with its arms carved and encircled by a crown… The total height of the monument, which stands at the crossing of the four main pathways in the churchyard, is 22 feet from the ground.  The work has been carried out from the designs, and under the supervision of Geo. H. Fellowes Prynne, F.R.I.B.A., by Messrs H. H. Martyn and Co., of Cheltenham.

The Reading Mercury of 14 April 1917 reported on the Easter Vestry Meeting of that year.  A report from Fellowes Prynne was brought to the notice of the meeting

…on the proposed Shiplake War Memorial which would take the form of new vestries for the clergy and choir, with a proper system of heating and ventilation, also the restoration of the chapel at the east end of the south aisle, where it was proposed at some convenient spot to record the names of all those from the parish who had given their lives in the war.

The records of the firm of Dart and Francis revealed that Fellowes Prynne asked the company to make a memorial frame and altar on 4 June 1920. He said he needed it by 24 July 1920, and it seems they agreed to make a special effort to comply just because it was him! Total cost for the two items was £70.

The wooden open-fronted altar in the Lady Chapel has the text inscribed on it:

Lord, all pitying Jesu blest
Grant them thine eternal rest

Fellowes Prynne also used these same words on the memorial cross at Ruislip, and the memorials at Buckland,  Moretonhampstead, and Ealing