The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Oxfordshire (pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales))
Parish church
The village of Shutford is 4.5 miles W of Banbury. St Martin's church dates from the late C12th and for many centuries it constituted a chapelry within Swalcliffe parish. The small stone building now comprises a chancel, nave, a narrow N aisle with a tower at its W end, and a wide N transept or chapel built at an angle towards the NNE. In the C13th the N aisle was extended eastwards by one bay, the N transept was added and the nave rebuilt. The surviving parts from the late Romanesque are the Transitional N aisle with an arcade of two pointed arches supported by a round pier and responds with scallop capitals, and a round-headed W window in the ground stage of the tower, probably the original W window of the N aisle. There is also a Romanesque font.
Parish church
This cruciform church of limestone rubble stands high above the west bank of the Cherwell, 8 miles north of Oxford. It now comprises the chancel, built up due to the sloping ground, central tower, N and S transepts, and a clerestoried nave with a S aisle. The N and S walls of the nave may be partly pre-Conquest. Although it was probably originally aisleless, on the N side remain two blocked arches, visible both on the outside and inside walls. These may represent either porticus arches, or arches of a N arcade built c. 1120. Whatever their nature, the extensions were demolished in the early C13th.
A similar situation may have pertained on the S side because the S arcade and aisle were also built or rebuilt at the time of the demolition, when also the chancel was extended eastwards and the nave westwards. The N nave doorway of c. 1120 is thought to have been reset within the NW blocked nave arch also at the same time. The arch of another early Romanesque doorway, decorated with roll mouldings, is now set in the E wall of the churchyard. On the nave interior there are small round-headed arches, one each on N and S walls, just below the clerestorey windows. The W bay of the chancel on the S side still retains a C12th pilaster buttress. A further Romanesque detail is the three beakheads reset on the S face of the second stage of the tower.
Parish church
Somerton is situated 20 miles due N of Oxford, standing high on the E bank of the Oxford canal in the valley of the river Cherwell. The original church is known to have been in existence soon after the Norman Conquest, and a N aisle was added in the early C13th. The present church is largely C14th and comprises a chancel, clerestoried nave, N aisle, S chapel and W tower. In the 16thc. the S aisle was converted into the Fermor Chapel, and new windows were inserted. The blocked arch of a Romanesque doorway is visible in the S exterior wall of the nave, also internally as a rere-arch.
Parish church
The church consists of a rebuilt 13thc chancel, a nave with a late Romanesque N door, a 14thc S aisle incorporating fragments of the late Romanesque arcade, and a late Romanesque W tower of four stages defined by double-chamfered string-courses. This tower was rebuilt in facsimile with much original material in 1906, including the simple round-headed windows and twin belfry openings. The foundations of the apsidal chancel were found in 1896 (VCH vi, 310).
Parish church
Hornton is in NE Oxfordshire, 3 miles NW of Banbury. The church was originally built in the late 12thc with ironstone rubble, and comprised a chancel, nave and a N aisle. It now has a largely 14thc exterior, resulting from the rebuilding and alterations of the next two centuries. The chancel was rebuilt twice in the 13thc and 14thc. The lengthening of the nave, the addition of a clerestorey, of a S aisle and a N chapel took place in the 14thc. The tower was added in the 15thc. The church went through a stage of chronic disrepair in the late 19thc and until 1916. Structural evidence of this is still visible on the S nave clerestory wall. The church interior is well known for its wall paintings, but it also has several remaining Romanesque features: corbels in the chancel, a transitional N nave arcade with round piers and scallop capitals, and a font with cable and intersecting arcading.
Parish church
St Edburg’s is the town church for Bicester in E Oxfordshire. The large 12thc. church had been cruciform, with a chancel, nave, transepts and a central tower. In the 13thc. the chancel was enlarged and the S aisle was added. A N aisle was added in the 14thc., with octagonal piers inserted in the N wall of the nave. The central tower was taken down in the 15thc. and rebuilt at the W end. The removal of the W crossing arch at the same time allowed for a longer nave. The church now comprises a chancel, clerestoried nave, transepts with N and S aisles, a vestry (former N chapel), a W tower and a N porch. Of the Romanesque church, three arches of the original crossing remain. Traces of a chevron stringcourse remain on the transept walls, and on the now interiorised N nave wall between the arcades.
Parish church
In the mid-C12th the Borough of Woodstock was founded by the king, and it is presumed that the present church was established at this time. It was created within the parish of Bladon as a chapel of ease. It is known that a S aisle was added in the C13th, and a bell tower, mentioned in 1279, stood on the N side of the church. This was rebuilt or raised in the C15th, but taken down as unsafe in the C18th. A new tower and N aisle were built in the classical style by John Yenn in 1784-6. The medieval church was almost completely rebuilt by A.W. Blomfield in 1878. Today the S doorway, richly decorated with two continuous orders of chevron, is the only Romanesque survival.
Parish church
Binsey is a small village by the River Thames about 1.5 miles NW of Oxford. Although this little church is now within Oxford City, it is hidden away along a narrow wooded lane, half a mile N of Binsey village. Its earliest datable stonework is the round-headed S doorway of the late 12thc. It is uncertain whether the porch was built at the same time (as suggested by Sherwood and Pevsner), or added in the 13thc remodelling (as posited by Clark). The church has always been a two-cell structure and much of it was rebuilt, at least from waist height, in the 13thc. The present church comprises a chancel, a nave and a central bell-cote. The S doorway is the surviving main Romanesque feature, and the plain font probably also dates to the 12thc.
Parish church
Charlbury is a large village in NW Oxfordshire, 6 miles S of Chipping Norton. There was originally a smaller Romanesque church on this site. It was greatly enlarged in the 13thc. by the extension of the chancel eastwards, and by the addition of a tall W tower, a S aisle, and N and S chapels. The S chapel runs the whole length of the chancel as well as the nave. There was a major repair and refit by G.E. Street in 1856. As the church is so wide relative to its length, the seating is now oriented with the altar at the W end where it is visible to worshippers from the side aisles as well as the nave. The only surviving Romanesque features are the three round arches of the N nave arcades with responds and a single pier.
Parish church
St James church, built of the local ironstone, serves a small hamlet hidden away in the Tew valley in N Oxfordshire. It is small, comprising a short chancel, nave and narrow N and S aisles, and a SW tower, of which the lower stage forms the entrance porch, and the W door opens into an adjoining schoolroom. The earliest evidence in the building is the scant remaining C12th work. The Romanesque bases of two of the S arcade piers show that it comprised a nave and aisle of three bays, presumably with a chancel. It was remodelled in the C14th and the tower was built into the W bay of the S aisle in the C17th, forming a porch and reusing the C13th S door.