Church Of St Lawrence

The Church of St. Lawrence is a church built between 1844 and 1847 by Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin for Magdalen College, Oxford. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and features a gabled stone slate roof with crested ridge tiles, as well as a concrete tile roof on the vestry and part of the chancel roof. The building has a stone gable end stack to the vestry. Designed in the Gothic Revival style, it includes a chancel with a north vestry, a nave with a west bellcote, and a decorated-style three-light east window. The vestry has a plain pointed doorway and shallow pointed moulded surrounds to two-light windows. The chancel has two bays, while the nave has four bays, each with one- and two-light trefoil-headed windows. To the left, there is a gabled south porch with plain pointed chamfered doorways, and offset buttresses mark all bay divisions, with the west bellcote supported by an offset buttress at the center of the west wall.

Inside, the chancel features a finely carved reredos, benches with carved bench ends, a communion rail, and a priest's chair with curved stretchers. The encaustic tile floor and the trussed rafter roof with an embattled wall plate showcase fine stencilled painting, likely by Pugin. The nave contains a pulpit, lectern, and some benches with carved ends, also by Pugin. An octagonal font with carved panels and bowl supports was given by Queen Adelaide. The church is adorned with three fine chandeliers and three candelabra on each wall. The original plans by Pugin, dated 1844, and much correspondence related to the church's construction are preserved at Magdalen College, Oxford. The total cost of building the church was £596; Pugin noted that he initially designed it with a tower, but after realizing it would cost £645, he modified the design to include a belfry instead. This church represents Pugin's only Anglican commission.