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The present parish church of St. Mary was built in 1895, and is the third on the site. Its medieval predecessor was largely demolished c. 1842, and is known only from drawings made by J. C. Buckler in 1825 (Fig. 32). Built of stone, it had a chancel and short nave of roughly equal length, a small bellcote on the gable between them, and a south porch. Most likely it originated in the early-to-mid 12th century, the date of the original tub-shaped font: in the 19th century the north door was said to be 'Norman', and a small round-headed window survived at the west end of the chancel's south wall. The nave's apparent width suggests that a south aisle may have been incorporated under a catslide roof. If so the aisle was probably added during the 13th century, as indicated by a trefoil-headed window shown in the south wall. Windows at the chancel's east end were of two trefoiled lights set in a square frame, suggesting that the chancel was extended in the 14th or 15th century. The porch was probably added around the same period.

Despite William Cleevely's recent bequest towards its upkeep, the chapel was in decay in 1630 when John Godfrey (as owner of the rectory estate) accepted responsibility for chancel repairs. The building was again in disrepair in 1759, and 'very decayed' in 1829–30, when William Hervey was licensed to extend it twelve feet westwards to accommodate private pews for his family and servants. The fabric remained damp and unsound, and in 1842 Hervey rebuilt it almost completely, doubling the accommodation to 120. 

Hervey's new building was eclectic in style, comprising a short chancel, wide nave, transeptal chapels, and north and south porches. On the north side of the nave was an additional room which, with the porch and transeptal chapel, effectively formed an aisle. Most of the windows were gothic in style, but high square windows lit a gallery, while the north porch was surmounted by an Italianate campanile with blind arcading and a pyramidal roof. Until the rebuilding there was reportedly no churchyard, and a surrounding plot of 38 perches was conveyed by the vicar of Broadwell in 1844 and consecrated the following year. 

By 1894 Hervey's church was 'unsafe', and in 1895 it was replaced with the present building (Plate 2), designed in an Arts-and-Crafts late gothic style by the architect W. E. Mills of Banbury, and paid for by W. H. Fox of Bradwell Grove. Built of coursed rubble, its nave has an octagonal lantern bellcote on the west gable, and a timber-framed south porch. The chancel has a south transeptal chapel, and on the north a combined vestry and organ chamber, housing an organ of 1895 by Alfred Kirkland of London. The east and south gables have blind tracery panels in their apexes, and all the windows have curvilinear tracery. The interior, which originally had polychrome decoration, retains most of its original fittings; glass in the east window (by H. W. Bryans) was installed in 1921 in memory of W. H. Fox (who is buried in the churchyard), and an altar with riddell posts surmounted by angels was added in 1948 in memory of one of the Heyworth family. The pulpit, reportedly reconstructed from an earlier one, incorporates three 17th-century Flemish panels carved with Annunciation, Nativity, and Epiphany scenes (Fig. 31), perhaps brought into the earlier church by the Roman Catholic Trinders. Electric light replaced oil lamps in 1951, and electric heating was installed in 1958. The churchyard was extended in 1895, and a detailed graveyard plan was drawn up by the long-serving sexton Norman James in 1992.

Historical information about St. Mary's Church is provided by British History Online. 'Broadwell Parish: Holwell', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 17, ed. Simon Townley (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2012), pp. 87-111. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol17/pp87-111 [accessed 14 April 2023].

St. Mary's Church is listed Grade II. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST MARY, Holwell - 1225785 | Historic England.

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