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St. Mary's Church in Kidlington comprises an aisled chancel, central tower with spire, transepts, and clerestoried nave with south aisle and porch. The only surviving piece from the 12th- century church is the plain, tub-shaped font, set on an early 14th-century octagonal base. The 13th-century church had an aisleless nave and chancel, central tower, and transepts. Much of the west and north walls of the nave, the transept walls, and the lower stages of the tower survive; in the west wall of the north transept are two lancet windows, and jambs of others are visible in the west walls of the nave and south transept. The church was extensively remodelled in the earlier 14th century, possibly under the orders of Thomas of Kidlington, abbot of Oseney 1330-73. A south aisle of five bays and a south porch were added to the nave, and chapels of two bays each north and south of the chancel. The workmanship of the south chapel is of a particularly high standard; fragments of the glass from its east window survived in the chancel windows in 1983. In the 15th century the tower was heightened and the spire added and clerestories were built in the nave and north transept. Of the same date are six carved wooden screens placed around the chancel and its chapels. Some of the screens have been moved since 1848 when they enclosed only the eastern bay of each chapel. In the 16th century a new west window and door were inserted in the west wall. In 1545 a parishioner requested burial in an otherwise unrecorded west porch. 

The church was repaired regularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, notably in 1618 when a special rate was levied for the church and the bells, in 1756-7 when the steeple and a gallery were repaired, and in 1789 when the church was repaved. There were galleries on the north, east, and west sides of the nave, for Gosford, Water Eaton, and the choir; the choir gallery was built in 1760. 

Despite opposition from some parishioners, extensive repairs and alterations were made in 1829 and 1830, on the initiative of the curate Edward Feild. The eastern gallery was removed and replaced by a smaller one in part of the south aisle, the pews were renewed and rearranged to face the pulpit in the middle of the north wall, and 20 carved 15th-century bench ends were made into desks and placed in the chancel in front of the misericords of the same date. Exeter College restored the chancel, refixing in the east window the medieval glass, which had been 'daily dilapidating' in 1789, and two shields brought from the college. In 1846 H. J. Underwood repaired the south chancel chapel, which had been used as a private mortuary chapel by Sir William Morton and his successors, and the south transept; the following year G. G. Scott restored the chancel for Exeter College, presumably removing the flat boarded ceiling which still cut off the head of the east window in 1846. The chancel floor was repaired, re-using some medieval tiles, in 1851.

The bad condition of the north transept was reported in 1869 and again in 1875, and it seems to have been repaired soon afterwards. 

In 1880 the church was 'partially restored', the nave and south aisle were reroofed, and the wall of the south aisle rebuilt. Work on cleaning the church in 1892 revealed late medieval wallpaintings; an 'indescribably accurate' series of the seven deadly sins was covered up at once, but pictures of the Virgin Mary and St. Margaret were allowed to remain. The paintings, on the east wall of the north transept, survived, together with fragments on the north and east walls, in 1983. The spire was repaired in 1907-8. In 1970 a modern statue of the Virgin was placed in the niche over the door in the south porch. The Victorian pews in the nave and south aisle were replaced c. 1973 by blue chairs, and in 1981 a Sunday school room in wood and glass was built in the north transept.

The east and south windows of the chancel contain medieval glass from elsewhere in the church, including a late 13th-century panel from a tree of Jesse, showing a king grasping a vine flanked by two prophets, a Crucifixion of c. 1300, and a composite 15th-century panel of the Trinity. A 15th-century panel tentatively identified as a miracle of St. Frideswide seems to have come from Christ Church. There are four 14th- century shields (Fiennes, Elmbridge, Le Strange, and the township of Kidlington) and one early 16th- century shield, that of John de la Pole duke of Suffolk (d. 1491-2); two early 15th- century shields of bishops Stapledon and Stafford of Exeter came from Exeter College. 

The monuments in the chancel include several floor slabs to members of the Standard family, lessees of the rectory in the 17th century, and wall plaques to their successors the Smiths. In the north chapel or vestry are wall plaques to John Conant (d. 1723) and his wife Mary, of Bayley manor, and to Joseph Smith (d. 1756) of Bayley manor; on the north wall of the nave is a plaque to A. C. R. Freeborn, vicar 1887-1925, and funeral hatchments of Joseph Smith (d. 1776) and his wives Lydia Barney (d. 1745) and Elizabeth Bouchier (d. 1777). Many brasses were destroyed when the church was repaved in 1789. 

The plate includes a silver chalice and paten cover of 1612, a silver tankard flagon of 1702 given by John and Mary Conant of Bayley manor in 1703, another chalice of 1710 given to the church that year, and a 17th-century Dutch or Low German brass almsdish. All but the second chalice were listed among the church goods in 1754. 

There are eight bells, the earliest of 1700; the treble and second were added to the ring in 1897 when the third, fourth, and sixth, originally of 1661, 1621, and 1610, were recast.

Historical information about St. Mary's Church is provided by A P Baggs, W J Blair, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, Janet Cooper, C J Day, Nesta Selwyn and S C Townley, 'Kidlington: Churches', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 12, Wootton Hundred (South) Including Woodstock, ed. Alan Crossley and C R Elrington (London, 1990), pp. 206-209. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol12/pp206-209 [accessed 14 February 2023].

St. Mary's Church is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST MARY, Kidlington - 1291046 | Historic England.

For more information about St. Mary's Church see Kidlington: Churches | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).