Church Of The Holy Rood

WOODEATON SP51SW 1/231 Church of the Holy Rood l8/07/63

GV I

Church. C13; tower C14. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; stone-slate and lead roofs. Nave, chancel, west tower and south porch. C13 chancel has, to north, 2 lancets and blocked round-headed doorway; to south, one small lancet remains beside a C13 priests door with 2 orders of roll moulding, and to right is a C15 window of 2 cinquefoil lights under a label. Nave has, to south, 2 trefoil-headed lancets and a 2-light window converted, in the C15, to a tall mullioned and transomed window. Small C17 porch with an old studded door shelters a Decorated doorway with panelled doors. To north is another lancet, a 2-light window with Y-tracery and a blocked door. The west wall has a central buttress between a trefoil lancet and a blocked lancet. The gable is built up to form the west wall of the C14 internal tower which has arched traceried mullioned and transomed belfry openings below a crenellated and pinnacled parapet. Interior: Chancel has a trefoil-headed piscina, a projecting sedilium with one stone armrest, and a stone bench, all to south; chancel arch is C14; western bay of wide nave is taken up with tower set on 2 tall octagonal piers. Nave roof has remains of C13 coupled-rafter roof, at east end, including a tie beam with a rare painted doom inscription; rest of nave roof is probably C14 with arched windbraces to the lower purlins. Wall paintings include a large early C14 St. Christopher, with Norman-French inscription, over the blocked north door, and contemporary masonry decoration in red over much of the nave walls. Fittings include C15 benches with 4 fleur-de-lys poppy heads in the nave and 4 more-elaborate bench ends in the chancel; early C16 screen with painted linenfold panelling and tracery; C18 panelled manorial pew and reading desk: late C18/early C19 western gallery. Monuments include a marble wall memorial to Anne Nourse, died 1669 with Corinthian pilasters and a swan-necked pediment; C17 ledgers; 5 late C18/early C19 hatchments of members of the Weyland family. (V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.V, pp.316-7; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p.853).

Listing NGR: SP5348611898