Church Of St Mary

Church of St. Mary, Kirtlington

This church dates from the early 12th century, possibly earlier, with significant additions and alterations from the mid 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The tower was rebuilt in 1853 by Benjamin Ferrey, the chancel was restored and rebuilt in 1877 by G.G. Scott, and the church underwent further restoration in 1905. The building is constructed of squared and coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has lead and Stonesfield-slate roofs.

The church comprises an aisled nave, chancel, central tower, south chapel and south porch. The 19th-century slated chancel incorporates considerable reused stonework, including round-headed lancets in the side windows and stepped angle buttresses with quoins. A large five-light east window with intersecting tracery, a priest's door and a two-light Perpendicular low-side window are probably original medieval features. The east gable is topped with tall octagonal corner pinnacles. The south aisle extends beside the central tower and contains two large square-headed 15th-century windows with three cinquefoiled lights, plus a similar window to the west.

The south porch shelters an early 14th-century south door with continuous hollow mouldings, reached through a 15th-century entrance arch. The west wall of the nave has a comparable doorway beneath a 14th-century window with three cusped and intersecting lights. The north aisle's two-light west window is similar. The north wall features a renewed square-headed Perpendicular window and a small blocked mid-13th-century doorway with deep mouldings and a shouldered inner arch. Clerestory windows throughout the nave each contain two rectangular lights.

The rectangular tower is externally in Norman style and dates to the 19th century. It features paired three-order bell-chamber openings with cushion capitals below an arcaded corbel table, and includes a rounded stair turret to the north.

Interior

The chancel incorporates a 13th-century trefoil-headed double piscina with restored projecting bowls. The rest of the chancel is 19th-century work with fine foliage corbels supporting a waggon roof and an elaborate encaustic-tile and marble floor. The rebuilt east tower arch has crude square imposts on later semi-octagonal responds and may be partly pre-Conquest in origin. The west arch is unchamfered with a hood of chevron and renewed head stops. A lower 14th-century arch to the south leads to the Dashwood Chapel. An 11th or 12th-century carved tympanum is reset over the vestry door.

The three-bay 13th-century nave arcades feature quatrefoil columns with stiff-leaf capitals to the south and moulded capitals to the north. The arcade hoods are carved with headstops. The roofs are in 15th-century style and incorporate some original work. A large wall painting adorns the north wall.

Furnishings and monuments include a 17th-century communion table with baluster legs and a mid-17th-century octagonal pulpit with arched perspective panels. Scott's richly carved chancel furnishings remain in place. The entrance to the Dashwood Chapel is protected by an early 18th-century wrought-iron screen and gates with urn-topped side panels and a sumptuous crested overthrow. A Baroque cartouche commemorates James Evans, who died in 1702. Within the Dashwood Chapel stands a large marble wall monument dated 1724 with a broken-segmental pediment and flanking drapery, commemorating numerous family members and signed by William and Thomas Williams of Middleton Stoney. The north wall features a monument to Thomas, described as "Sir Robert Dashwood's Black", who died in 1691. The south aisle contains several early 17th-century inscribed monuments and a pedimented Baroque monument. Many hatchments are displayed throughout the church.

Stained glass by Thomas Willement dates to around 1852 in the south aisle, with further 1877 glass by Scott in the chancel.