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Churches

A stained glass window showing a fritillary in Ducklington Church

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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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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…
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…
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,…
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…
Kelmscott - St George's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Kelmscott

Originally a chapel of ease, St George's Church in Kelmscott is practically unaltered since the close of the 15th century, thanks to William Morris, who lived at nearby Kelmscott Manor. He was so appalled by some of the Victorian 'restoration' work being carried out on medieval churches that he…
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…
Great Tew - St Michael & All Angels Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Great Tew

Approached through an unusual gateway, along a path flanked by ha-has, Great Tew's church is barely visible from the road. Despite some unsympathetic 19th century restoration, the church still has many interesting features: finely carved bench ends, a series of slightly faded 14th century wall…
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…
Widford - St Oswald's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Widford

A tiny church on its own in the Windrush Valley. In 1904 it was found to have been built on the base of a Roman house or temple. Mainly 13th century it has remnants of an 11th century Saxon or Norman building, e.g. the dividing wall, a chevroned corbel and the plain rough font.
There are two…
Shipton-under-Wychwood - St Mary's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Shipton-under-Wychwood

This handsome medieval church, mainly dating between the 13th and 15th centuries, has a wonderful setting: surrounded by trees (making it near impossible to photograph the exterior!) beyond the village green. It has a short tower with an attractive spire and a light, spacious interior with good…
Shilton - Holy Rood Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Shilton

Humble and unadorned, Shilton's Church of the Holy Rood stands on a slope above the village. The church has a restored Norman nave with an arcade of three pillars supported on stout Norman columns, some with (probably 12th century) painted, red chevrons on them.
There is a beautiful, square…
Stanton Harcourt - St Michael's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Stanton Harcourt

St Michael’s church is cruciform in shape, Norman, Early English and Perpendicular in architecture. The church was extensively altered in the 13th century, when the transepts were added and the chancel rebuilt. The Harcourt Chapel (which is kept locked) was added to the church c. 1470, by Sir…
Westwell - St Mary's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Westwell

Westwell's church offers pleasures out of all proportion to its size - a picturesque setting overlooking the spring which gave the village its name, some delightful touchs and a refreshing simplicity overall.
The church is small and simple, with Early English and Victorian additions to the…
Enstone - St Kenelm's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Enstone

The earliest church here dates from around 850 AD and the present church has thirteen centuries of history with nine phases of building, rebuilding and change. There is a beautiful 14th century stone porch with the ceiling divided into eight sections, supported and decorated with carved stone…
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…
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…
Heythrop - St Nicholas' Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Chadlington, Chipping Norton

Heythrop has two churches. The main church was built in the 1870s, using local stone, by Albert Brassey, who owned Heythrop Park. It is typical of the Victorian gothic style and is in good order. It has three bells but these are only able to be chimed. As the only public building in the parish it…
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…
Eynsham - St Leonard's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Eynsham

St Leonards dates from the 13th century but was heavily restored in Victorian times by William Wilkinson in 1856 and H.G.W. Drinkwater in 1892.
Swinbrook - St Mary's Church

Type

Church / Chapel

Swinbrook

Set in the Windrush Valley, St Mary's church is 12th century with early enlargements and a tower tacked on in 1822 – a recent ‘afterthought’. It is full of interest and light, the clear glass windows illuminating both the architecture and some amazing monuments to the Fettiplace family – six…