Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A parish church of exceptional architectural importance, St Mary combines 12th-century fragments with major expansions spanning the medieval period. The building comprises a nave with north and south aisles, chancel, shallow north transept, Milcombe Chapel to the south, north and south vestries, north and south porches, and a west tower with spire.

The earliest work dates to the 12th century, with the foundation and chancel arch incorporating Romanesque fragments. The 13th century saw the construction of the chancel, nave, north and south aisles, and nave arcades. The 14th century brought substantial expansion: the north and south aisles were widened, a shallow north transept was constructed, north and south porches were added, and the west tower and spire were built. The 15th century saw the addition of the Milcombe Chapel and the construction of the clerestory to the nave. The roofs of the north and south aisles were reconstructed in 1686, and the spire underwent several repairs during the 18th century. In 1864, G.E. Street undertook a major restoration including the provision of a new chancel roof and nave roof, reredos, choir stalls, and other furnishings. Major repairs were carried out in 1956.

The church is constructed of regular coursed ironstone rubble with lead roofs. The chancel is lit by a four-light Gothic Revival east window and other windows with two lights and intersecting Y-shaped or geometrical tracery. The north vestry was added in 1866; the south vestry dates to the 20th century. The north aisle contains a four-light west window with unusual tracery incorporating carved figures, a three-light window west of the porch with a form of reticulated tracery, two three-light windows east of the porch with reticulated and geometrical tracery, and a five-light Perpendicular east window. The north porch and doorway date to the early 14th century and display wave mouldings. The south aisle has a four-light geometrical west window with a six-sided star to its head and a three-light geometrical window to the left of the porch. The 14th-century south porch is vaulted with a room above and a third storey added in the 15th century. The Milcombe Chapel is distinguished by four-, five-, and seven-light rectilinear windows externally divided by buttresses with pinnacles, a straight parapet with gargoyles, and mutilated niches flanking the east windows of the south aisle and chapel.

The west tower is of five stages with angle buttresses containing niches, string courses to all stages, and louvred lights to the bell stage. The west doorway has three orders of wave moulding with hollows filled with ballflower ornament, leaves, birds, and large carved heads in place of capitals; the hood features seated figures. At the fifth stage, the tower forms an octagon beneath the spire, marked by corner pinnacles. The octagon has a cornice of blind tracery; the spire is ornamented with canopied lucarnes.

The interior reveals considerable medieval craftsmanship. The chancel arch incorporates 12th-century responds re-used in the 14th-century rebuilding. A 12th-century doorway in the north wall, also re-set, features a tympanum with fish scale pattern. Romanesque carvings from an earlier phase have been re-used in the rear-arches of the south windows. The nave arcades consist of four bays with double-chamfered arches; the north piers are round with moulded capitals, whilst the south piers are of quatrefoil section, one retaining a stiff leaf capital. The north transept is entered through two arches on diamond-shaped piers with capitals carved with a band of heads. Between the south aisle and Milcombe Chapel are two delicately moulded four-centred arches flanking a slender pier. The north aisle roof and most of the south aisle roof date to the 14th century; the chancel and nave roofs were renewed in 1866. The font is 15th-century with a Jacobean cover. A 15th-century rood screen survives, and the reredos and choir stalls are of 1866 by Street.

Wall paintings include 15th-century fragments above the north doorway and a series of narrative scenes probably of the 16th century in the Milcombe Chapel. Fragments of 14th-century glass remain in the central window of the north aisle. The chancel east window dates to 1869 and was designed by Morris and Company; the chancel south window is by Charles Kempe; the low south window in the chancel is also by Morris and Company, inserted in 1920.

The church contains monuments to the Thornycroft family, including Sir John Thornycroft (died 1725) in the Milcombe Chapel, Elizabeth, Lady Thornycroft (1704), John Thornycroft (1687), and his wife Dorothy (died 1717/18). Memorials commemorate 19th-century members of the Holloway family and several vicars: Robert Pargiter, John Davis, Harry Davis, George Bell, and James Hodgson.

St Mary is noted as one of the finest parish churches in the country. It remained under indirect royal patronage until 1541, when the living passed to Eton College. The distinguished 14th- and 15th-century tracery and lively sculpture were executed by a school of 14th-century masons responsible for other churches in the locality. The Milcombe Chapel may have been built by the mason Richard Winchcombe, who was responsible for the chancel at Adderbury in 1418.