The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Oxfordshire (pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales))
Parish church
St Mary's is an exceptionally complete Romanesque structure, consisting of an unaisled chancel and nave separated by a central tower. It might originally have had an apsidal E end, but at some time in the 13thc the chancel was extended to the E, so the original termination is gone. The W facade is of 3 storeys: an elaborate doorway flanked by blind arches, then a storey lit by a large oculus, and in the gable a triplet with a blind arch above. The nave also has lateral doorways; that on the S side justly celebrated for its decoration. The vaulting of the chancel and especially the shafts supporting it, as well as the two tower arches, are also enriched with sculpture. Elaborately decorated windows are found on the W facade, and on the lateral walls of the nave, tower and chancel. The font is 12thc., as is an abandoned bowl in the churchyard.
The nave roof was lowered in the 17thc, and a crenellated parapet was added. This reduced the height of the W gable, cutting off the outer 3rd-storey windows below capital level. In 1823 the gable was rebuilt by Robert Bliss, and in 1844 the roof was raised to its original pitch by R C Hussey. Thus the blind window at the apex of the gable and the frieze below it are entirely 19thc work. The large oculus in the centre of the 2nd storey of the facade was inserted by J C Buckler in 1856-57, replacing a Perpendicular window. He was assisted in his restoration by an outline of an original oculus in the masonry. Apart from the work on the W front there was a general restoration of the church in 1844. In the 1970s the top storey of the tower was refaced, involving replaing much of the carved and moulded stone. In the 1980s a shelter coat of limestone spray was applied to the exterior sculpture, and this was renewed in 2017 by Sally Strachey Ltd.
Parish church
St Mary's, Witney, is a large cruciform church with a fine central tower and spire, visible from afar and dominating the S end of the Green at the centre of this country town. Mostly of coursed limestone rubble, the church now comprises a chancel, an aisled and clerestoried nave with a NW chapel and a two-storeyed N porch, and clerestoried transepts with chapels and W aisles. The late 11thc. or early 12thc. church probably consisted of aisleless nave and chancel, of which blocked single splay windows survive high in the nave walls. Fragments of string course also survive, formerly on the nave exterior but now interiorised in the aisles. There is only tenuous evidence of an early central tower. It is more likely that the thick W wall, now ostensibly 13thc., is the remains of an early W tower, similar to that excavated at Bampton. If so, the nave retains its original dimensions. The four-bay N aisle and porch were added in the late 12thc., and the latter has outer and inner doorways with round-headed arches, the outer possibly rebuilt. There are a number of re-used fragments of Romanesque masonry, including chevron and a single beakhead.
Parish church
Wood Eaton is a quiet village off the beaten track, yet it is only 5 miles NE of Oxford, and 2 miles from Islip. Holy Rood church comprises a chancel, nave, S porch and a W tower. The main fabric of the present chancel and nave probably dates from c. 1250 (VCH). There is a plain font that might be Romanesque.
Parish church
Wolversote is a village 3 iles NW of the centre of Oxford. There is evidence of a C12th church on this site, originally a chapel of ease subject to St Peter-in-the-East in Oxford, comprising a nave and chancel. It was later enlarged, and in the C14th the nave was extended and the W tower built. In 1859, the whole church, except the tower, was pulled down and rebuilt in a neo-Decorated style. Although the late C12th chancel arch survived until 1859, the sole survivor from that time is now the font, decorated with a pleasing pattern of incised bands with diaper pattern.
Parish church
The hamlet of Newton Purcell is 5 miles NE of Bicester, near the Buckinghamshire border. From the architectural evidence, a church existed here by the mid-C12th. It is now a small stone structure covered with pebble-dash rendering, comprising a continuous nave and chancel with a bell gable at the W end. The original church was largely destroyed by the ‘repairs’ of 1813, and the restoration by C.N. Beazley in 1875-6 amounted to a rebuilding using the original foundations. The nave doorway, with a chip-carved lintel and a tympanum carved with a dove and serpents, was moved from the N to the S side and is now the only remaining Romanesque feature.
Parish church
Black Bourton is a village about eight miles SW of Witney on Black Bourton Brook, a tributary of the River Thames. The church lies to the N of the village and was built of coursed rubble limestone; it consists of an early 12thc chancel altered in the 13thc, a late 12thc nave with N aisle, a 14thc S porch, and a W tower erected on the westernmost sector of the nave in the early 16thc. The building was restored 1866 by Edward George Bruton. Romanesque sculpture is found on the S doorway, the N arcade, and the font.
Parish church
Noke is a small hamlet 5 miles NE of Oxford and 1 mile SE of Islip. The present church is a small stone building, much restored, dating mainly from the 13thc. It comprises a 13thc. chancel, nave and S porch, and a 19thc. bell turret. It has a plain tapered limestone font of indeterminate age.
Parish church
Bletchingdon is located in N Oxfordshire, midway between Oxford and Bicester. The present church has a 13thc. chancel and a Perpendicular nave and W tower. It was much restored in the 19thc. There is evidence of earlier work in the blocked round-headed arch of a lancet-sized window on the N side of the chancel, and the Romanesque stone fragment of star-in-square carving, probably from a lintel, mounted on the outside of the S wall of the nave.
Parish church
Lewknor lies at the foot of the Chilterns in SE Oxfordshire, close to the M40 motorway. The church is built of flint with stone dressings, with a few courses of brick in the N wall. The 12thc. church, originally a cruciform building, consisted of a chancel, nave and transeptal chapels. In the 14thc. the chancel was enlarged, and a S aisle and porch were added. The W tower is a 15thc. addition. The Romanesque is now represented by the N transeptal chapel with a blocked round-headed doorway, the nave with a pair of lancet windows on each side at the W end, the S and N restored corbel tables, and internally by the almost complete string course around the nave and chancel arch. A fine Romanesque font is sculpted overall with interlacing and linked circles containing various motifs, including two human heads.
Parish church
The village lies entirely within the parkland of Rousham House in the Cherwell valley in N Oxfordshire, 11 miles distant from both Oxford and Banbury. The earliest church presumably consisted of nave and chancel. In the late C12th, the first bay of a S arcade was begun at the E end of the nave. A W tower was built in the early C13th The chancel was repaired or rebuilt in 1304. Later in the C14th, a S chapel was added and the S arcade and aisle extended the full length of the nave. The church was restored in 1867-8, and the chancel was rebuilt using some late C12th material. The Romanesque work comprises the re-used nookshafts and capitals of the chancel arch, and the first bay of the S arcade. The latter has an E respond with trumpet scallops on the capital and a round pier with a large decorated polygonal capital.