Church Of St Mary

UPPER HEYFORD CHURCH WALK SP42NE (West side) 2/137 Church of St. Mary 07/12/66 GV II*

Church. C15, and 1867 by Talbot Bury incorporating C14 and C15 elements. Rubble and coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings; Welsh-slate, sheet-metal, and concrete plain-tile roofs. Chancel, nave, north aisle, north and south vestries, west tower and south porch. Rebuilt chancel incorporates a fine 3-light east window with Perpendicular drop tracery below a 4-centred arch, and has a square-headed 2-light window to north; matching window to south plus remainder of chancel and vestries is C19. Nave has, to south, two 3-light Perpendicular-style windows below pairs of quatrefoil clerestory windows, and has 2 small windows above the south porch. North aisle has traceried windows with pointed-segmental arches. North clerestory has 3 pairs of quatrefoil windows, and the nave parapet is a frieze of blind quatrefoils. C15 rubble tower, with diagonal buttresses and moulded plinth and strings, has a moulded Tudor-arched west doorway below a 3-light Perpendicular window, and has arched 2-light bell-chamber openings with Perpendicular tracery, below a crenellated parapet which formerly had corner pinnacles; buttresses carry the arms of New College Oxford and its Warden at the time of building (c.1465). Interior: Chancel incorporates a C14 piscina with a cusped head, a C14 recess containing the effigy of a priest, and a cartouche of arms, now forming the base of a missal stand. Wide 4-centred arch to south vestry; coupled-rafter roof with arched bracing. Responds of chancel arch, and east respond and first capital of 3-bay nave arcade, have vigorously-carved capitals with naturalistic grapes, corn, and other vegetation; remaining capitals are moulded but remain uncarved. C15 tower arch has inner shafts with octagonal capitals plus a wide casement moulding. Perpendicular-style nave roof. Fittings include an Art Noveau wrought-iron screen of c.1900, brought from Bicester Church. Numerous late-C17 and early-C18 ledgers, mostly to members of the Myrry family. C19 stained glass in east window. (VCH Oxfordshire, Vol VI, p204; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p820)

Listing NGR: SP4948325866