All Saints, Shirburn, Oxfordshire

I Location

Site Location
Shirburn
National Grid Reference
SU 697 959
County
traditional: Oxfordshire
now: Oxfordshire
Diocese
medieval: Lincoln
now: Oxford
Dedication
medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): All Saints
Type of building/monument
Parish church

II General Description

General view from SE.

General view from SE.

Nave, looking E.

Nave, looking E.

Nave, looking W.

Nave, looking W.

The church was much rebuilt in the 19thc., but retains 13thc. arcades. The small, simple W tower is apparently 12thc. (diagonal tooling on quoins), and has on the third stage a single round-headed belfry opening in the W wall, and a twin round-headed opening with central shaft in the N wall. The two re-set fragments described below were found under the floor and placed in their present positions in 1876 (VCH Oxon. viii, 195).

III Exterior Features

3. Exterior Decoration

d. Miscellaneous

(i) Re-set tympanum
W tower, W wall, openings.

W tower, W wall, openings.

W tower, second stage, window, lintel above.

W tower, second stage, window, lintel above.

The tympanum is reused as an external lintel over the late medieval window in the ground stage of the W wall of the tower. It is covered with three-strand figure-of-eight knot pattern, bordered by a roll-moulding and by a band of guilloche with the fields enclosing small stars.

Dimensions
Approximate (inaccessible for accurate measurement):
max. w. 1.10 m

IV Interior Features

5. Interior Decoration

c. Miscellaneous

(i) Re-set lintel
W tower, internal W wall, lintel above second stage window.

W tower, internal W wall, lintel above second stage window.

Reused as an internal lintel over the same west tower window as III.3.d.(i). It is covered with a chip-carved pattern of stars in hexagons. On either side is a beast-head covered with ribbed lines, with foliage issuing from its upwards-pointing open mouth; these heads appear to have functioned as the capitals of small attached nook-shafts on the jambs, the neckings of which are carved on the block. Inaccessible for measurement.

VII History

In the late 11thc. the manor was divided between Robert d'Oilly and Roger d'Ivry. Between 1146 and 1163 Roger fitz Alfred, apparently a d'Oilly tenant, gave Shirburn church to Dorchester Abbey.

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

  • N. Pevsner and J. Sherwood, The Buildings of England. Oxfordshire, London, 1974, 761.
  • Victoria History of the County of Oxford, viii, 1964, 193.