St Etheldredas Church

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SP4143 23/88

HORLEY CHURCH LANE (East side) St Etheldredas Church

(Formerly listed as Church of St. Etheireda)

08/12/55

GV I

Church. C12. Chancel and central tower remodelled in C13 and C14. Nave of C13. Clerestory of c.1320. South aisle enlarged C14 and south porch added. North aisle rebuilt C15 re-using the C13 doorway but inserting C15 windows. Nave west window of C17, C17 and C18 repairs. Restored in 1915 by William Weir.

Squared coursed ironstone. Steeply pitched stone slate roofs. Stone corner stack. Chancel, central tower, nave, north and south aisles, south porch. Seven-window range. Chancel. Priest's doorway on south has plank door, pointed arched head and hood mould. Entrance is flanked by three-light. Decorating windows with ogee arched hood moulds. Five-light east window has intersecting tracery and hood mould. Chancel has two three-light Decorated windows on the north. Stone-coped gables. Central tower of three stages with crenellated parapet and diagonal buttresses. C12 openings to third stage. Single and two-light Perpendicular windows on south.

Nave clerestory has four-Perpendicular windows on north and south with square heads. Parapet. South aisle has three-light Decorated windows with reticulated and wheel tracery and a two-light Perpendicular window with square head, hood mould and label stops. Parapet diagonal buttress. Gabled south porch has pointed arched doorway. South door has two attached C13 columns with bell capitals. North aisle, C13 re-sited doorway. Three three-light Perpendicular windows. Hood moulds and label stops. West window of nave renewed in C17. West doorway of C13.

Interior. Chancel has a C19 King strut roof. Two C12 piscinas and an aumbry with a round arch with roll moulding. Decorated chancel arch of two chamfered orders. Nave has a four-bay C19 King strut roof. Four-bay nave arcasdes with arches of two chamfered orders and alternating round and octagonal piers. Screen and roof loft by Lawrence Dale 1947-50. C18 organ. C12 tub shaped font.

Noteable wall paintings; Gigantic St. Christopher c.1450 in north aisle (¨one of the largest and most perfect representations of the Saint in this Country¨ VCH). Post Reformation textes on south wall. Tower has two arched tomb recesses and brass c.1500 representing a Civilian and Lady with six daughters and several sons. Fragments of early glass; early C15 in north aisle; south aisle. C19 pine pulpit and C19 pews.

(Buildings of England; Oxfordshire; 1974, pp652-3; VCH: Oxfordshire, Vol IX, pp134-6; Jnl Bot. Arch. Assoc., Vol 27 (1921), pl, 1-76)

Listing NGR: SP4169643966