Chapel at Water Eaton Manor House is a Grade I listed building in the Cherwell local planning authority area, England. First listed on 7 December 1966. A C.1600 Chapel. 1 related planning application.
Chapel at Water Eaton Manor House
- WRENN ID
- deep-crypt-dust
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Cherwell
- Constituency
- Bicester and Woodstock MP: Calum Miller (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 7 December 1966
- Type
- Chapel
- Address
- Chapel at Water Eaton Manor House, Gosford and Water Eaton, OX2 8HE
- OS grid reference
- SP 515 121
- Coordinates
- 51.80522, -1.2535
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The chapel at Water Eaton Manor House is a domestic chapel built around 1600. It was restored in 1884 by W. Wilkinson and H.W. Moore, and again in about 1905 by G.F. Bodley. The structure is made of coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings and features a Stonesfield-slate roof. It includes a nave and chancel designed in the Perpendicular style. The walls have a chamfered plinth and stepped angle buttresses, rising to gable parapets.
The chancel's east window has five cinquefoiled lights set within a four-centre-arched head, while the south window mirrors this design but has three lights. There are also two additional three-light windows in the south wall of the nave and a fourth window facing west. The south doorway features a three-centred head with recessed spandrels beneath a label mould. The west gable is topped with a small bellcote.
Inside, both the nave and chancel have wagon roofs supported by heavy coupled rafters with arched bracing that rises from moulded wall plates. The chancel arch is in a Renaissance style, featuring a chamfered semi-circular arch with moulded capitals that continue as a cornice. Notable interior fittings include a complete set of bench pews with heavy fleur-de-lys poppyheads, a hexagonal pulpit with carved arched panels, a sounding board, and a crested canopy. The chancel screen is adorned with an arcade of black-painted Ionic columns supporting a strapwork frieze, with the lower panelling likely being a restoration. A simple communion table with turned legs is also present. The choir stalls, in a similar style, date from the 19th century, as does the rood added by Bodley. The east window features early 20th-century stained glass. This chapel is a remarkably complete example of a rare type.
Local climate
Chapel at Water Eaton Manor House sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 70% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 50% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 2022
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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