Description

SP4735 ADDERBURY HIGH STREET
(West side)
Adderbury East
7/51 Church of St. Mary
08/12/55

GV I
Church. Early C13 and early C14; chancel and vestry 1409-19 by Richard
Winchcombe for New College Oxford; chancel restored c.1831 by J.C. Buckler; nave
restored c.1866 by Sir G.G. Scott; further restoration 1886 by J.O, Scott.
Marlstone rubble and ashlar with limestone-ashlar dressings; lead roofs.
Cruciform plan with north and south aisles and porches, vestry and west tower.
Winchcombe's sumptuous 3-bay ashlar chancel, with a high moulded plinth and
elaborate stepped buttresses with crocketed pinnacles facing the upper stages,
has 4-centre-arched windows in deep casement mouldings with restored
Perpendicular tracery and crenellated transoms; to south is a Tudor-arched
priest's door with ornamented spandrels, and to north, a contemporary 2-storey
vestry in similar style projects from the middle bay and has a fine traceried
bay window with a crenellated parapet. Plain chancel parapet has large winged
gargoyles, and above the east window is a head of William of Wykeham and the
arms of New College. Rubble transepts retain C13 clasping buttresses and moulded
strings, but have large 4-light C13 windows with restored geometrical tracery;
both have tall C15 paired clerestory windows, arched on the south transept and
square-headed on the north. C14 aisles, with 3- and 4-light Decorated windows
with restored geometrical and flowing tracery, have remarkable carved friezes
below the parapets, depicting grotesque faces, animals and musicians. C14
porches have simpler friezes and wave-moulded entrance arches. South door is
richly moulded with attached shafts and an elaborate hood mould ornamented with
ballflower. The 3 main doors have very fine ironwork: the hinges and the handle
on the north and west doors probably medieval, those on the south door C19. Nave
clerestory has 3-light C15 windows with pointed-segmental arches. Early-C14
tower, of 4 unequal stages with diagonal buttresses, has a wave-moulded west
door below a 3-light window with intersecting uncusped tracery, and has similar
openings in the tall bell-chamber stage. The late-C14 pierced trefoil parapet
rises from a further elaborate frieze and has winged corner gargoyles; large
octagonal pinnacles with ball finials are set back behind the parapet and
cluster round the octagonal limestone spire which has triangular-headed
traceried lucarnes between the pinnacles. Interior: chancel retains fine carved
corbels and head-stops of bishops and kings, and has a restored 3-seat sedilia,
piscina and reredos of great elaboration and quality; the C19 figures flanking
the east window stand in tall C15 niches with superb pinnacled and crocketed
canopies. Chancel roof is Cl9 in C15 style. Tall chancel arch is C14, but 4-bay
nave arcades are C13, though possibly altered in C14; they have octagonal
columns with moulded circular capitals. Both transepts retain C13 blind arcading
with detached shafts, plus the splays of several lancets built up in C14. South
transept has a small cusped piscina and a later double piscina with a traceried
triangular head; north transept has a C13 aumbry with a cusped head. 2-bay
late-C14 arcades opening from transepts to aisles have slender moulded columns,
set diagonally, and capitals with male and female heads, some linking arms as at
Bloxham and Hanwell Churches (q.v.). Both aisles have a tomb recess, that to
north probably a restoration. C15 roof of nave has 8 king-post trusses with
cusped and moulded arched braces rising from wall posts, and with further cusped
bracing extending in 4 directions from the kingposts; Cl9 aisle roofs repeat the
design. Panelled font in Perpendicular style of 1831 by John Plowman. Oak
fittings are C19 except for a fine traceried C15 rood screen, restored and given
an elaborate roof loft by Gilbert Scott, and some C17 panelling in the transepts
from former box pews; also 2 old chests and an early-C18 communion table.
Chancel fittings include return stalls with misericord seats, and an organ case
by Gilbert Scott. Monuments include a brass to Jane Smith (d.1508) and a painted
wooden memorial to Thomas More (d,1586). Stained glass includes armorial glass
of 1834 by Willement. 2 windows in the transepts by Ward and Hughes (1870 and
1888), a window of 1905 by Clayton and Bell, and the west window of 1912 by
Powell and Sons. I+; -- ~
(Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: pp413-15); VCH: 0xfordshire: Vol IX, p12)

Listing NGR: SP4708635375

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17528118

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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