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Churches

Bampton Church used on several occasions in the television series Downton Abbey

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Churches

The great wealth of local, medieval wool merchants paid for many of the churches in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds and many of their spires dominate the skyline for miles around. Burford’s church is particularly fine with a number of fascinating monuments, including some 1649 graffiti on its lead font.

There are a number of famous burials in Oxfordshire Cotswolds churches, including Sir Winston Churchill’s grave at Bladon, William Morris' at Kelmscott and four of the Mitford sisters at Swinbrook. Bampton’s St Mary’s Church has become famous as the church in Downton Abbey where the wedding of Mary Crawley took place. Other churches have ornate tombs, medieval brasses, wall paintings or, like the church at Widford, a stunning location as well.

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Oxfordshire Churches & Chapels

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Alvescot - St Peter's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Alvescot

The architecture is in the Early English and Perpendicular styles consisting of nave, 14th century porch, transepts, north and south chapels. Originally there was no tower but it was added in the 15th century after a local benefactor, John Bonde, left 100 sheep to fund its building!
Inside...
Ascott-under-Wychwood - Holy Trinity Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Ascott-under-Wychwood

Holy Trinity is set in the heart of the beautiful village of Ascott-under-Wychwood. It abounds with fascinating historical features and has been the centre of worship in the village for some 900 years.
It mainly dates from the 12th century and is quite small and simple, set in a picturesque...
Asthall - St Nicholas Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Asthall

A 12th century church in the Windrush Valley, with a 14th century transept converted into a chantry chapel. This has a very rare small 14th century altar with a built-in piscina, two reliquaries and a huge tomb recess housing a delicately carved effigy of the Lady Joan Cornwall in a wimple. Rare...
Bampton - St Mary's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Bampton

The parish of Bampton was the largest in Oxfordshire and incorporated some 11,238 acres as late as 1877. It seems there was a church here long before the Norman Conquest, although the only surviving element before that time is the Anglo-Saxon tower with its fine herringbone stonework. It is...
Black Bourton - St Mary the Virgin Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Black Bourton

Considered a significant medieval church, St Mary the Virgin's earliest features are Norman including the chancel, font and carved stone pulpit - the priest’s door may be even earlier, possibly Saxon.
However the real highlight of the church is its 13th century wall paintings. Covered at the...
Bladon - St Martin's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Bladon

The parish of Bladon includes Blenheim Palace and is therefore the burial place of many of the Spencer Churchills - only the Dukes and Duchesses are buried in the chapel at Blenheim Palace. The most famous grave is that of Sir Winston Churchill, who chose to be buried here. His wife Clementine was,...
Brize Norton - St Britius Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Brize Norton

This is the only church in England dedicated to St. Britius, who was canonised in 443 A.D.
The church itself is Norman, consisting of a chancel and a nave, and was enlarged in the 13th century when a North aisle, the Wenman Chapel and the West tower were added. In 1868 G. E. Street carried out...
Broadwell - St Peter & St Paul's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Broadwell

This large medieval cruciform church, with a north and south transept, dates back to the 12th to 14th centuries and reflects the importance of Broadwell (or Bradwell) at that time. Nowadays it stands in a small village of a few houses, with another small village, Kencot, just beyond the eastern...
Broughton Poggs - St Peter's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Broughton Poggs

St Peter’s, Broughton Poggs, is situated in a farmyard, although many of the former barns on the north side have been converted into modern dwellings. The building is basically Norman but there is a suggestion that the tower might be Saxon.
The nave is 12th century so this section was probably...
Burford - St John the Baptist Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Burford

One of the large Cotswold 'wool churches' built between 1160 and 1475. Items of interest include: a memorial tablet to Henry VIII’s barber-surgeon, Edmund Harman, showing one of the earliest representations of South American Indians; the ornate, canopied tomb of Sir Lawrence and Lady Tanfield; a...
Carterton - St John the Evangelist Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Carterton

St John’s Church began life in 1908 as a Mission Church to Black Bourton. It was rebuilt in 1963 as a dual purpose hall/church and developed again in 1994 with a new extension and worship area.
Cassington - St Peter's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Cassington

St Peter's is a fine Norman church with lovely woodwork and glass. It was built in the early years of the 12th century by Geoffrey de Clinton, treasurer to Henry I. The church was altered and added to in the 14th century - these changes included the spire and porches and the insertion of new...
Charlbury - St Mary the Virgin Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Charlbury

Parts of the present building date from the 12th century, though a Saxon church may have existed here. From 1094 until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, all appointments to the living of Charlbury were made by the Abbey of Eynsham. From 1296 the Abbey received the main tithes of...
Chastleton - St Mary's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Chastleton

Next to the National Trust property of Chastleton House (pre-booking required for visiting) the Church is best known for its brasses. The medieval floor tiles have been well worn over the centuries and the font dates back to the 13th century, possibly earlier. There are also some interesting 17th...
Chipping Norton - St Mary the Virgin Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Chipping Norton

A wool church and Grade I listed building, St Mary the Virgin is tucked away near the bottom of the hill on which the town sits. The setting seems incongruous, however it is here in the shadow of the church, and what was once the castle, that the settlement was originally concentrated. In the early...
Church Hanborough - St Peter & St Paul Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Church Hanborough

The church's octagonal limestone spire is visible from all around. Dating back to the 12th century, the church was internally remodelled in the 14th century. Its most treasured work is the Norman tympanum over the North door showing St Peter with his key, the lion of St Mark and a Lamb of God. ...
Churchill - All Saints Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Churchill

Built in 1826, All Saints has a west tower that is a slimmer version of the tower of Magdalen College in Oxford (reduced by a third in size) and inside is a hammerbeam roof copied from the hall of Christ Church in Oxford. Otherwise the church is typically Georgian with a broad nave, narrow isles...
Clanfield - St Stephen's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Clanfield

A small 13th century church, standing behind its churchyard on the north-west edge of the village, next to Chestlion Farm which may have been the manor house. The western tower, with four pinnacles and a squat figure of Saint Stephen on its south-east corner, houses a ring of eight bells. The...
Cogges - St Mary's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Witney

The church has an unusual tower; positioned in the north west corner of the church it is square at ground stage, octagonal at upper stages with a pyramid roof, and is characteristic of Normandy churches. The nave was originally aisleless and may be pre-Conquest. The south aisle was added in the...
Combe - St Laurence's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Combe

St Laurence has been a place of worship for more than 600 years - the nave was completed in 1395. The wall paintings are mainly from the 15th century, and were uncovered in the 1890s by a former vicar, The Rev. S. Pearce, and were probably the work of the monks of Eynsham Abbey. The stone pulpit is...