St. Mary's Church, Bloxham
Church Street in Bloxham is dominated by the impressive looking church, the Church of St. Mary, Our Lady of Bloxham. Its 14th century tower and spire is a local landmark and said to be the highest in Oxfordshire. The earliest surviving parts of St. Mary's are 12th century but only fragments remain from this period. Fragments of mediaeval wall paintings survive inside St. Mary's, including a Doom painting over the chancel arch and St. Christopher over the north doorway. St. Mary's Church consists of a nave, north and south aisles, south chapel, chancel with north vestry, north and south porches, and western tower. The existing church is predominantly of 14th-century date and apart from its tower and spire (198 ft.) is notable for the sculptured ornamentation on the exterior of the building. A rebuilding evidently took place in the mid-12th century and parts of this earlier church were used when there was a second rebuilding in the 13th century. There survive a doorway with carved tympanum reset in the north wall of the chancel and the voussoirs of the south doorway of the nave, which were re-used when the doorway was rebuilt in the early 14th century. The chancel arch also rests on 12th-century responds which appear too far apart to be in their original positions. The most unusual feature, however, is the use in the chancel of the 12th-century mouldings as the reararches for the tracery of the 13th-century windows. Cable, zig-zag, and beak-head motifs are used in these arches. The 13th-century church apparently consisted of a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, and possibly a western tower. The south aisle was probably added rather later than the north aisle. The chief 13thcentury features now remaining are the chancel, including the windows in the north and south walls, the nave arcades with cylindrical piers on the north side, and clustered piers with early stiff-leaved capitals on the south side. Soon after 1300 the north and south aisles were widened and the shallow north transept was constructed. The last is separated from the north aisle by a striking diamond-shaped pillar from which spring 2 arches. The clustered shaft of the pillar has an elaborately carved capital depicting the heads and shoulders of knights and ladies with linked arms, a feature found in other north Oxfordshire churches and possibly carved by the same mason. The windows in the north wall of the north aisle and those in the south aisle still retain the tracery of this period. The north and south porches are contemporary with the widened aisles. The south porch is vaulted in 2 bays and is surmounted by a parvise, the upper part of which is of later date. The west tower and spire are also of early-14th-century date. The tower is richly ornamented and its west doorway has elaborate mouldings with a pattern of leaves, birds, and ball flower. Round the hood-mould of the door are the 12 apostles seated on thrones and above is portrayed the Last Judgment. The Milcombe chapel, the large east windows of both aisles, and the clerestory of the nave are Perpendicular in style and were added in the 15th century. The chapel is separated from the south aisle by an arcade of 2 bays with 4-centred arches which evidently replaced a transept opening similar to that still existing on the north side of the church. The chapel is characterized by great lightness. Its east window has 7 lights and the windows on the south and west walls are of 4 or 5 lights. The recesses are carried down to form window seats and those at the east end form a reredos. The east windows of both north and south aisles are in exactly the same style. The clerestory was also added in the 15th century, and the upper story of the south porch is the work of the builders of the Milcombe chapel. The exterior of the chapel has a number of boldly-carved gargoyles, a parapet without battlements, and square-topped pinnacles. There were few major alterations to the fabric between the 15th and the 19th centuries. Presumably something was done to the chancel in the early 16th century after it had been reported as 'ruinous'. The roofs of the north and south aisles were reconstructed in 1686; and at some unknown date the steeply-pitched chancel roof was replaced by a flat one. The line of the original roof is still visible at the west end. Probably in the 18th century the tracery of the east window was removed. The spire was several times repaired in this century, having been damaged by storms. In 1864 a major restoration was begun. It was completed in 1866 at a cost of £6,000. The aim was to restore all the fabric in the most 'solid manner' without making any fundamental alterations. The roofs of the nave and chancel were renewed and those of the north and south aisles were restored; the walls were stripped of plaster and the stonework repaired; the memorial slabs on the floor (63 in number) were removed and the whole of the floor was tiled; the west gallery, probably an 18th-century addition, was removed and the tower was thrown open to the church by the removal of the lower floor; the pews, most of which had been introduced in the later 18th century were removed and the church was reseated. A vestry and organ-chamber were erected on the north side of the chancel and a new organ supplied by J. W. Walker was installed.
In 1926 a new clock face was added on the west side of the tower; the church had had a clock at least since 1754. Electric light was installed in 1935. In 1956 major repairs were once again necessary; these included the repair of the spire, releading the nave and chancel, and re-roofing the south aisle and Milcombe chapel which had been attacked by the death-watch beetle. At one time the church walls were richly painted. There remain 3 late-medieval paintings. A giant St. Christopher and 2 other figures, one kneeling, beside him, is over the north doorway and the fragment of a doom is on the south side of the chancel arch. A 15th-century mural in the Milcombe chapel consists of a series of scenes which seem to tell the story of some youthful martyr. A few fragments of the 14th-century glass remain in the upper lights of a window in the north aisle. The chancel east window (1869), a small window on the south side of the choir (1919), and the north aisle east window (1921) are by Morris and Co. The chancel east window was made up from designs by William Morris, Burne-Jones, and Philip West. The St. Christopher in the choir window is from a Burne-Jones design of 1868. The figure of St. Martin in the north aisle window is from a BurneJones design of 1878, and the other figures are probably from designs by J. H. Dearle. The west window (1886) in the south wall of the chancel is by Kempe. There is a ring of 8 bells, but all except the fifth, probably of c. 1570, and the tenor, dated 1648, have been recast in the 18th century or later. Historical information about St. Mary's Church is provided by British History Online. 'Bloxham hundred', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 9, Bloxham Hundred, ed. Mary D Lobel and Alan Crossley (London, 1969), pp. 1-4. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol9/pp1-4 [accessed 12 January 2023]. St. Mary's Church is listed Grade I. For more information about the listing see Church of St Mary, Bloxham - 1284130 | Historic England For more information about St. Mary's Church see Parishes: Bloxham | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk). |
