Church Of All Saints

SP52SW MIDDLETON STONEY

5/109 Church of All Saints 07/12/66

GV II*

Church. Mid C12, late C12, early C13, C14 and C15; restored and partly rebuilt 1858 by S.S. Teulon and 1868 by G.E. Street. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; Stonesfield-slate and sheet-metal roofs. Chancel, aisled nave, south porch, west tower, south-east vestry and north-east mausoleum. Mid C12 slated chancel has a string course, ornamented with dogtooth, and retains a round-headed lancet to north; to south is a 3-light Decorated window, and to east a 5-light window with tracery by Teulon in a C14 opening with head stops to the hood. Vestry, extending south aisle to east, is by Street. South aisle, with a deep moulded parapet, has 2 square-headed 3-light windows (one a restoration). The large porch with a similar parapet has a late-C12 entrance arch with engaged shafts carrying a heavy roll moulding; the large plank door is ancient, and the porch shelters a fine mid C12 doorway, richly ornamented with chevron and with a carved tympanum. Rebuilt north aisle has a re-used late C12 doorway with engaged shafts and early stiff-leaf capitals. It extends eastwards to the Jersey Mausoleum of 1805, built as a transept with a tall gable flanked by diagonally-set pinnacles; the north window was "Normanised" by Teulon with plate tracery. C15 clerestory has square-headed, 2-light, traceried windows. West tower was rebuilt by Teulon retaining lancets at the third stage and the early-C13 arcaded fourth stage incorporating bell-chamber openings; lower 2 stages have clasping buttresses. Interior: chancel is internally C19 with an elaborate stone, marble and tile reredos plus a traceried double piscina; arch-braced C19 roof has pierced cusping. A C19 chevron-ornamented archway on the north leads to the Jersey Mausoleum. Pointed Transitional chancel arch has clustered responds with leaf capitals, and the arch has a dogtooth band between 2 wide rolls. 3-bay north arcade is of similar date and style, with circular columns, square capitals and a variety of leaf ornament. South aisle has a 2-bay C14 arcade, with an octagonal column and moulded capital, plus an unmoulded pointed arch to east. Tower arch is probably mostly C19. Arcaded oak chancel furnishings plus low stone screen and pulpit are by Street. C14 octagonal font, carved with window tracery and considerably cut down, stands on an octagonal stem carved with a long inscription beginning "THIS FONTE CAME/FROM THE KINGS/CHAPEL IN ISLIPP..." and claiming that Edward the Confessor was baptised in it. Monuments in the chancel include 2 Baroque cartouches commemorating members of the Offley family, and a brass to Elizabeth Harman (died 1607). The Jersey Mausoleum contains elaborate late-C18 and C19 marble memorials, and has painted heraldry on the walls and ceiling plus a patterned marble floor. (V.C.H.; Oxfordshire, Vol.VI, pp.248-50; Buildings of England; Oxfordshire, pp.701-2).

Listing NGR: SP5310823252