Chapel At Water Eaton Manor House

GOSFORD AND WATER EATON WATER EATON SP51SW 6/46 Chapel at Water Eaton Manor 07/12/66 House (Formerly listed as Manor House, chapel) GV I Domestic chapel. c.1600, restored 1884 by W. Wilkinson and H.W. Moore, and c.1905 by G.F. Bodley. Coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings; Stonesfield-slate roof. Nave and chancel. Perpendicular style. Walls have chamfered plinth, stepped angle buttresses and rise to gable parapets. Chancel east window has 5 cinquefoiled lights within a 4-centre-arched head; south window is similar but of 3 lights, and there are 2 more 3-light windows in the south wall of the nave plus a fourth facing west. South doorway has a 3-centred head with recessed spandrels below a label mould. The west gable has a small bellcote. Interior: nave and chancel have wagon roofs of heavy coupled rafters with arched bracing rising from moulded wall plates. Chancel arch is in Renaissance style with a chamfered semi-circular arch and moulded capitals continued as a cornice. Contemporary fittings include a complete set of bench pews with heavy fleur-de-lys poppyheads, a hexagonal pulpit with carved arched panels, plus sounding board and crested canopy, a fine chancel screen with an arcade of black-painted Ionic columns supporting a strapwork frieze (the lower panelling probably a restoration), and a simple communion table with turned legs. Choir stalls in similar style are C19, as is the rood added by Bodley. Early C20 stained glass in east window. A remarkably complete survival of a rare type. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p.826; H. Avray Tipping "Water Eaton Manor, Oxfordshire"; Country Life, Nov. 9th 1907, pp.666-74; V.C.H: Oxfordshire, Vol.12 (to be published).).

Listing NGR: SP5156612104