The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Edward the Confessor (now)
Parish church
The Bartons constitute a group of villages in NE Oxfordshire between Chipping Norton and Bicester. The present church comprises a chancel, nave with S aisle, S porch and a W tower. Recent excavations reveal that an earlier nave was twice extended westwards before the S aisle was added in the mid-C12th. Later in the C12th the chancel was rebuilt. The first documentary evidence of 1180 implies that the church had been in existence for some time. There is now little Romanesque evidence externally as the church was enlarged and remodelled in the late C15th. It was restored by G.E. Street in 1855-6. Internally, the nave and S aisle show their Romanesque plan with two round-headed arcades with a single round pier. The Transitional chancel arch was restored by Street, who re-used the imposts. The S aisle probably formed a major part of the original church, and in its S wall is a Romanesque tomb recess with a decorated facing.