Description

ARDLEY SOMERTON ROAD
SP52NW (North side)
3/3 Church of St. Mary
07/12/66
GV II*

Church. C14 (possibly partly earlier) and 1792, restored 1865. Limestone and
some marlstone rubble with limestone-ashlar dressings; limestone ashlar;
Stonesfield-slate roofs. Chancel, nave and west tower. C14 rubble chancel has
good flowing tracery in the 3-light east window and in the 2-light windows to
west of it; the 2 westernmost windows are square headed but may be of the same
date, that to south with a blocked lower section below a transom. C14 priest's
door. Plain ashlar nave of 1792 has 3 simple pointed windows each side, the
middle window to south blocked. The saddleback-roofed tower, which has c14
diagonal buttresses and marlstone banding to its lower stages, has a pointed
western doorway of c.1792 below a square-headed 2-light C14 window. The
limestone rubble of the upper stage looks earlier and there are simple 2-light
openings to the top stage facing north and south, which may be Romanesque.
Interior: Chancel has an unusual C13 double recess, one half of which is a
piscina; it has linked trefoiled heads with a central piercing, and the jambs
are ornamented with dogtooth. To north is an elaborately-cusped ogee-headed C14
tomb recess. The plain chancel arch has C13 detached shafts with moulded
capitals, but the northern base may be earlier, The tower arch is probably C14
but is partly concealed by a western gallery of 1834. Fittings include a C12 tub
font and two C17 chests, There is a wall monument of 1753 in the chancel, and
several plainer tablets.
(VCH: Oxfordshire, Vol VI, p13; Buildings of England; Oxfordshire, pp422-3)

Listing NGR: SP5424227371

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548057

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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