• Home
• Cherwell
  • List of villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in Cherwell
  • Photography dates
• South Oxfordshire
  • List of villages
  • Thames-side villages
  • The Oxfordshire Chilterns
  • Recommended villages to visit in South Oxfordshire
  • Photography dates
• Vale of White Horse
  • List of villages
  • Thames-side villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in Vale of White Horse
  • Photography dates
• West Oxfordshire
  • List of villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in West Oxfordshire
  • Photography dates
• Information
  • Useful links
  • "Midsomer Murders" film locations
  • Link your website to Oxfordshire Villages
  • Weather forecast and traffic
  • Licenses and acknowledgements
  • Contact me

The church of St. Mary the Virgin at Bampton, so called by 1742, was said in 1292 to be dedicated to St. John the Baptist, in 1317 to St. Mary and St. John the Baptist, in 1335 to St. John the Baptist and St. Beornwald, and in 1370 and 1521 to St. Beornwald. It is chiefly of limestone rubble with stone-slated roofs, and is of notable size and quality, comprising chancel with north vestry and south porch, central tower with stone spire, north and south transepts with eastern chapels, a chapel on the west side of the south transept, and a four-bay aisled nave with west and south porches. Remains of an earlier church or chapel may underlie the north transept, but the oldest standing fabric is the eastern end of an early nave built of coursed rubble laid partly in herringbone courses, later incorporated into the base of the tower; contemporary with or later than that work is the late 11th- or early 12th-century chancel arch, with chip-carved decoration. A tower 'built in olden times of wondrous form and with extraordinary skill and ingenuity' was mentioned in the 12th century, and excavations against the external west wall of the present nave revealed the footing of a structure with a projecting stair-base, probably remains of an early Norman west tower.

In the late 12th century the church was made cruciform by the addition of transepts, a central tower, and a new chancel; its size was then exceptional by normal parochial standards, reflecting its quasi-collegiate status. The north transept is misaligned in relation to the rest of the church, and excavations against the external east wall of its eastern chapel revealed a footing likely to predate the late 12th-century work; the chapel, which contained St. Beornwald's shrine, may therefore perpetuate some earlier structure whose alignment is respected by that of the transept. The south transept has on its east side a large, round-headed arch, now blocked, which formerly opened into a shallow, rectangular altar-recess identified by excavation; the transept's south doorway has elaborate Romanesque decoration, and in the early 19th century retained its door with original ironwork. The tower, supported on four pointed arches of plain square orders, contains an internal blind arcade (later concealed by the ringing-chamber floor) of paired round-headed recesses with scalloped capitals; on the north side one of the recesses pierces the wall to overlook the north transept, and is entered from the stair-turret by a passage in the thickness of the wall, an arrangement which suggests a gallery overlooking St. Beornwald's shrine. The position of the stair-turret within the body of the church precludes a 12thcentury north aisle, but a south aisle of that date is suggested both by the west respond of the existing arcade, and by the many fragments of chevron-moulded voussoirs re-used in the wall above it.

The long, narrow vestry, added c. 1200, retains an original doorway, still with its door and ironwork, into the chancel, and an original east window. In the early 13th century the north transept's east chapel was remodelled with a broad arch towards the transept, and a gabled recess, probably to be identified as St. Beornwald's shrine, in its east wall; the piscina and sedilia in the chancel are of similar date. In the mid 13th century the tower was heightened and the spire added. At the base of the spire are corner shafts bearing standing figures, identified as St. Andrew on the north-west, St. John the Baptist on the south-west, perhaps St. Beornwald on the north-east, and St. Peter on the south-east, an apparently unique feature which may reflect the figure-sculpture of Wells cathedral; the figure of St. Andrew was renewed in the late 19th century and that of St. John the Baptist in 1991.

Between c. 1290 and 1320 the whole church apart from the chancel, vestry, and crossing was remodelled, beginning with the addition of the south-western chapel, and including the total rebuilding of the nave. Work of that period is characterized by triplets of cusped lancet windows with cusped rere-arches, a distinctive feature which occurs (perhaps under Bampton's influence) in several local churches, and derives ultimately from the Somerset area; an indulgence granted in 1317 to all who contributed to the 'construction and repair' of Bampton church presumably refers to that rebuilding. Then or soon afterwards the north transept chapel was again remodelled, and the shrine-niche provided with a richly decorated canopy. The west porch was added in the mid to late 14th century, and a set of image-niches in the south transept, later concealed by the organ, in the 15th. 

The chancel was remodelled in 1497-9, all or part of the work to designs of the mason Thomas Martyn and the carpenter David Owretayn. New work included square-headed Perpendicular windows and a low-pitched timber roof, since destroyed. The chancel south porch, probably contemporary, mostly survives, as does a tall and elaborate Easter sepulchre on the north side of the altar. A clerestory was added to the nave and transepts about the same time.

The south porch of the nave was added probably in the earlier 16th century. At a similar date the altar-recess east of the south transept was replaced by a much larger mortuary chapel built probably by the More family of Lower Haddon, entered from the transept through a door in the blocking of the Romanesque arch, and with a large opening to the chancel on the north. John More (d. 1542) instructed his executors to provide window glass and altar furnishings, and bequeathed a cow to the churchwardens towards the chapel's upkeep. In 1669, as the Haddon aisle, the chapel was sold by the non-resident lord of Haddon to Thomas Horde (d. 1715), who remodelled it c. 1702, probably reducing it in size, and provided for repair of its glass and maintenance of family tombs. Its east window was blocked for a monument c. 1671.

Women's and men's doors were mentioned in the 17th century. Private box- and other pews in the north aisle and elsewhere by the later 17th century were the occasion of a fracas in the church in 1674, and by the early 18th century there were private galleries in the north and probably south aisles, and a public one at the west end; in the 19th century the galleries provided 260 sittings but effectively cut off the transepts, and services were conducted within the nave only. In 1792 the vestry was refitted, and in 1841 an additional north doorway was inserted. 

Between 1867 and 1870 the architect Ewan Christian supervised a major restoration financed by mortgage and subscription. The chancel and nave walls were lowered and new roofs of steeper pitch provided, destroying the nave clerestory; 15th-century fenestration in the south side of the chancel was replaced, and the east window enlarged; the archway between the Horde chapel and the chancel was rebuilt in different form on the old jambs, and the sedilia were remodelled; the roofs of the vestry and chancel south porch were renewed and the new north door blocked; and flooring was renewed and a new ceiling provided under the ringers' chamber. Pews were replaced over several years by open benches and the galleries were removed, and then or c. 1859 the south-west chapel was reroofed, new windows inserted into the north and south ends of the transepts, and a new window and door into the north side of the vestry. The top of the spire was rebuilt in 1872 following lightning damage. The Horde chapel, 'ruinous' in 1786 and used as a store by the 19th century, was converted into a new vestry in 1894, and the north transept chapel was refitted for daily services in 1908 by relatives of Philip Southby of Bampton House. Heating was installed under the vestry by 1894 and in 1891 money was being raised towards lighting the church apparently with oil lamps; electric lighting was installed in 1934. 

Early 16th-century stalls with misericord seats along the west wall of the chancel, and benches along the north and south walls, all much restored, perhaps replaced those said to be 'defective' c. 1520. Six stalls survived in 1858 but only four in 1867. Carved on one benchend and on one of the misericords is a hunting horn hanging from a scallop shell between the initials TH, and on another misericord the monogram JS: probably they refer to the vicars Thomas Hoye (1500-23) and John Southwode (1506-24), suggesting that one of the lost stalls bore the initials of their colleague. The other bench-end bears the arms of the see of Exeter. The font base is 14th-century, with blind tracery panels; the 19th-century bowl, 'new' in 1847, replaced a square, 12th-century bowl with round-headed blind arcading. Though briefly moved to the south-west chapel c. 1813 the font was returned to the nave before 1867, and in 1992 stood in the south aisle. A late 14th- or early 15th-century stone reredos showing Christ between the apostles, against the east wall of the north transept by the early 19th century, was placed in the chancel under the east window c. 1875. The pulpit, lectern, and reading desk, against the central north column of the nave for much of the 19th century, were renewed c. 1870 and moved to the east end; the large stone and marble pulpit then introduced was replaced in 1959 by one of oak, given in memory of Col. A. M. Colvile (d. 1952) of Weald Manor. The organ, by John Gray of London and paid for by subscription, was installed in a gallery at the east end of the nave, displacing the pulpit, in 1812, after plans to replace instrumentalists with a barrel organ were abandoned; it was moved to the south transept's west chapel in 1850 (when it may have acquired its present neo-Gothic case), and to the east wall of the transept probably c. 1870, when it was rebuilt and enlarged. It was restored in 1992. A pair of mid 18th- century mahogany chairs in Gothic style, of unknown provenance, were sold in 1981. 

Heraldic glass recorded in the earlier 18th century included arms of the More family, perhaps in the Horde chapel, and of Exeter College. Surviving stained glass is 19th- and early 20th- century, and includes windows given in memory of Edward Whitaker (d. 1825), Dacres Adams (d. 1871), and members of the Southby family, who donated the great east window c. 1872. 

A weathered, early 14th-century effigy of a woman, formerly in the churchyard, and a late 14th-century effigy of a knight with a helm under his head bearing the Talbot crest, lie loose in the south and north transepts respectively; also in the south transept are a medieval stone coffin and two cross-slabs. In the north transept's east chapel, before the shrine-niche (where it was found buried c. 1960), is the indent of an early 15th-century brass showing an ecclesiastic holding a crozier, perhaps a representation of St. Beornwald which may have adorned his shrine. Memorials to several vicars include wall monuments to Thomas Cooke (d. 1669) and Stephen Philips (d. 1684) in the Horde chapel, and in the chancel marble slabs to Thomas Snell the elder and younger (d. 1717 and 1758), and floor brasses to Thomas Plymyswode (d. 1417) and Robert Holcot (d. 1500), not in situ. Also in the Horde chapel are the 17th and early 18th-century grave slabs, placed vertically against the wall in 1894, of several of the Horde family, and an elaborate wall monument to Barbara Horde (d. 1671) and Thomas (d. 1715); a brass to Frances Horde (d. 1633) is in the chancel. A large monument to George Thompson (d. 1603), comprising tomb chest, effigy, and pedimented canopy, lies against the south transept's east wall. Lost monuments include an inscribed marble grave slab probably to the vicar Thomas Hoye (d. 1532); no sign remains of a family vault in the north transept for which Richard Coxeter (d. 1740) obtained permission in 1721. 

A 'new' clock and chimes were installed in 1733-4 by John Reynolds of Hagbourne (Berks.), presumably replacing an earlier mechanism. A new hand and dial were fitted in 1752, and repairs were carried out by Hunt (probably Thomas Hunt) of Burford in 1785. In 1848 the chimes played an 'ancient carol' at certain hours, but the clock was by then notoriously unreliable. The carillon was replaced by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon in 1907 and was reconstructed in 1962 by John Smith and sons of Derby, who also replaced the clock mechanism. 

The Lady bell of Bampton was evidently of some repute in the mid 16th century, and in 1629 the bells appear to have been recast and their number increased to six. Five bells of that date survive, of which three are attributed to Nathaniel Bolter. A replacement bell by Mears and Stainbank was hung in 1865 and two more were added in 1906, making a ring of eight; a new frame was installed in 1903, replacing one of 1608 perhaps by Matthew Chancelor of Berkshire. The saunce is of 1626, by James Keene of Woodstock. The plate includes a silver chalice of 1595, a pair of silver patens of 1618, a silver tankard flagon of 1720, bought partly with money bequeathed by Mary Croft (d. 1719), and a silver table-spoon of 1765; 20th-century plate includes a chalice and paten given in memory of E. G. Hunt, vicar 1872-95. The registers begin in 1538.

The churchyard was closed for burials in 1889. A new cemetery for Witney union was consecrated the following year, on former glebe north of Landells Lane bought by the Witney board of guardians as rural sanitary authority. It was extended in 1947.

Historical information about the St. Mary's Church is provided by A P Baggs, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, C J Day, Nesta Selwyn and S C Townley, 'Bampton and Weald: Churches', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 13, Bampton Hundred (Part One), ed. Alan Crossley and C R J Currie (London, 1996), pp. 48-57. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol13/pp48-57 [accessed 3 April 2023].

St. Mary's Church is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST MARY, Bampton - 1053559 | Historic England.

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