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St Denys, Northmoor, Oxfordshire

Location
(51°43′23″N, 1°23′30″W)
Northmoor
SP 421 029
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Oxfordshire
now Oxfordshire
medieval Lincoln
now Oxford
medieval St Denys
now St Denys
  • Janet Newson
28 Sept 2011

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Feature Sets
Description

Northmoor is a small village in south-west Oxfordshire close to Stanton Harcourt. The present church of St Denys is an almost unaltered small cruciform building of the early 14thc., with a 15thc. tower. Its only Romanesque feature is the tub font decorated with a single flowering stem.

History

Northmoor was already included in the original parish of Stanton Harcourt in 1135. However, it became a separate parish as soon as 1148, following a lawsuit between the abbeys of Reading and St Denis in Paris (VCH).

In 1959 the parishes of Northmoor and Stanton Harcourt were united again in a single benefice, and in 1976 they were joined by Standlake and Yelford to become the united benefice of Lower Windrush.

Features

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

There seems to be no record in the literature as to where the font came from, and it would seem likely that it is the only remaining Romanesque feature from an original church on this site, which is referred to by VCH. Although tradition has it that this is a Tree of Life, the botanical theme of the flowering stem on the font is continued in some of the later 13thc. carving.

Bibliography

J. Sherwood and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth 1974, 722.

Victoria County History: Oxfordshire, 13 (1996), 166-70 (under Stanton Harcourt).