Mongewell

This morning we walked from North Stoke alongside the river Thames to Wallingford and back via Mongewell, a rather dilapidated eerie place with very odd multi-coloured box shaped houses . We passed through the grounds of the former Carmel College boarding school for Jewish boys which ran from 1948 until its closure in 1997. The abandoned college buildings, including the distinctive concrete synagogue, stand semi-derelict. In one corner of the site is the ruined church of St John the Baptist. Only the chancel retains its roof and inside is this very large carved effigy of a reclining man wearing a turban and holding a book. It has no inscription. Next to it stands a memorial tablet to Private Claude Maxwell Hughes and Private Frederick George Hughes, both killed in the First World War.