St. Peter's Church, Great Haseley

Ambrosden church

For a small rural village Great Haseley has a relatively large and impressive church, reflecting in part its high-status patrons, the size of its medieval endowment, and possibly its early origins. The earliest fabric dates from c.1200, when the Pipards held the manor, but there are hints of an earlier structure: the nave, in particular, is exceptionally long, prompting suggestions that its easternmost bay may have once formed the chancel of a smaller 11th- or 12th-century church. The present building was substantially complete by 1500, and comprises a four-bay aisled nave with south porch, a taller three-bay chancel, and a Perpendicular west tower. Most building took place between the 13th and 15th centuries, and stone effigies of two 13th-century knights and a 13th-century slab with a foliated cross may commemorate some of the benefactors. A north-east chapel in Perpendicular style was added c.1709. The building as a whole is of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and numerous buttresses; the steep chancel roof is tiled, while the shallower roofs of the nave and aisles have been reroofed in copper. 

The nave's three westernmost bays were built c.1200, and were aisled from the start: the arcades reflect the transition from Norman to Early English, featuring large square abaci, embryonic stiff-leaf capitals, and more advanced roll mouldings on pointed arches. A fine doorway reset in the west tower is of similar date, with a pointed arch, three orders of roll-moulding, and a band of dogtooth. The Early-English chancel arch may be slightly later and has two orders of roll-moulding, rising from corbels carved with cinque-foiled leaves. The high-quality Decorated chancel (Fig. 71) was built in the late 13th century, possibly by the unknown benefactor whose elaborate tomb recess survives in the south wall. The recess is unusually ornamented, its arch cusped and sub-cusped to form a series of trefoils. Adjacent are three sedilia and a piscina, the whole lavishly carved with crocketed gables, finials, and pinnacles. The chancel's north and south walls each have three two-light windows with geometrical tracery, including trefoils and a quatrefoil in the head; above them is a continuous hood and a frieze of ballflower and quatrefoils. The magnificent east window, of five lights, has spherical triangles enclosed in a circle in the head.

The chancel is visible through squints in the north and south aisles. The largely Decorated south aisle is of inferior workmanship to the chancel, but includes a piscina with an ogee head under a crocketed arch with side pinnacles on head corbels. A reredos once stood beneath its three-light east window, and an image niche survives with a crocketed canopy. Further west, a row of three tomb recesses with cinquefoiled arches is probably of early 14th-century date. From the late 15th century the aisle was adopted as a mortuary chapel by the Lenthalls, and appears to have been dedicated to the Holy Trinity. 

Relatively little work was carried out during the 14th century, save for a remodelling of the nave's eastern bay perhaps in connection with the rood loft: a rood screen (though probably not the loft) remained in the mid 18th century. A sizeable collection of 14th-century tiles (now reset in the west walls) suggests that the church was also re-floored. Substantial rebuilding followed during the 15th century, when the church acquired its surviving west tower and clerestory. The former is of three stages with a crenellated parapet and diagonal buttresses, and has two-light traceried belfry openings set above a heavily recessed three-light west window; in 1553 it housed four bells. The square-headed clerestory windows and low plain porch are of similar date, together with the nave's 15th-century oak roof with carved braces to the tie beams. A chapel at the north aisles east end was added in the late 15th century, perhaps by the lords of Rycote, with whom it was later associated; the elaborate tomb chest of William Barentin (d. 1549) was moved there from the chancel only in the 19th century, probably during restoration work in the 1840s. A separate chapel north of the chancel, in Perpendicular style, was added by the Blackalls c.1709 to accommodate a family vault. An accomplished Baroque monument there by John Piddington of Oxford commemorates George Blackall (d. 1709) of Latchford, whose bewigged bust is set under a broken segmental pediment with an heraldic cartouche.

The church was in disrepair in 1520 when the chancel walls needed cleaning, and in 1758 the archdeacon ordered removal of ivy and minor repairs, including plastering and whitewashing the interior. Further repairs were undertaken in 1801, but by 1837 the building was afflicted by damp, and in 1841 the interior was refurbished, the changes including removal of a western gallery and of a flat plaster ceiling in the chancel, which obscured the east window. The architect was J.M. Derick. Minor improvements in the later 19th century were followed by a complete overhaul of the chancel in 1897, when the roof was retiled and guttered, new drainage and heating systems were installed, and a new floor, choir stalls, and altar fittings were provided, paid for largely by donations. Floor and choir stalls were designed by Thomas Garner. Stained glass was added piecemeal from the 1850s, including work by John Hardman & Co. (in the chancel), Charles Gibbs, and Burlison & Grylls. 

Early 20th-century fundraising and benefactions paid for further improvements including restoration of the south aisle, additional memorial windows, rehanging of the bells, refurnishing of the altar, and extension of the churchyard, together with provision of electric lighting and heating. A lightning strike in 1963 necessitated repairs to the east end, while theft of lead from the aisle roof led to reroofing in copper in 1978. The sale for £80,000 in 1996 of William Barentin's 16th-century tilting helmet, formerly mounted over his tomb (Fig. 71), provided funds for further repairs.

'Great Haseley (Including Little Haseley, Latchford, Rycote)', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 18, ed. Simon Townley (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2016), pp. 235-274. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol18/pp235-274 [accessed 21 March 2023].

St. Peter's Church is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST PETER, Great Haseley - 1047529 | Historic England.

For more information about St. Peter's Church see Great Haseley (Including Little Haseley, Latchford, Rycote) | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).