Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church dating back to the early 14th century, with 15th-century elements, and substantially rebuilt in 1811 for the 5th Earl of Abingdon. It is constructed primarily of uncoursed roughly dressed limestone, with dressed limestone to the chancel, and has stone-coped stone-slate roofs. The church comprises a chancel and nave, with a west tower added in 1811. The east gable features an early 14th-century curvilinear two-light window, above which is a trefoiled light from the early 19th century, set over an early 16th-century round-headed light, and with offset corner buttresses. The south wall of the chancel has two cinquefoil-headed lights from the 15th century. The south wall of the nave has three early 14th-century two-light Decorated windows with unusual radiating mouchettes in the head. The north wall of the nave contains an early 16th-century round-headed light, an early 14th-century two-light Decorated window, and an early 17th-century ashlar porch with trefoiled spandrels to the doorway and cinquefoil-headed side lights. A 14th-century two-centred north doorway frames an early 19th-century panelled and ribbed door. The north aisle has two early 16th-century two-light windows in its end walls. The west tower features a 15th-century-style door with scrolled ends to the label mould, a west door with a Gothick head set in a two-centred moulded arch, a late 15th-century two-light round-headed window and an early 19th-century two-light window. A stair turret is located to the south. The belfry has cinquefoiled lights and a crenellated parapet.

Inside, the sanctuary has a black and white quarry floor dated 1701, an early 17th-century communion table, and an early 19th-century communion rail. A double-chamfered chancel arch provides access to the nave. The church includes an early 19th-century Gothick pulpit and an octagonal font on a thin stem. Early 19th-century pews and a musicians' gallery with a three-bay segmental-arched arcade and thin Gothic-style panels are also present. The nave roof features an early 19th-century hammer-beam structure supported by early 14th-century head corbels, one of which depicts a man playing bagpipes. Various memorials are present, including late 17th and 18th-century plain lozenge-shaped floor slabs, a reset brass depicting William de Wytham (d.1406) and his wife, and three 17th-century wall tablets inscribed 1634/AP, 1624/TP, and dedicated to John Paynton (1612). The church’s stained glass includes a fine 18th-century depiction of the Adoration of the Shepherds in the east window, early 16th-century Flemish glass, and 16th-century heraldic glass in the south chancel windows. Memorial windows from 1912, 1920, and 1930, the work of Robert Anning Bell, are also present in the nave. Reused materials from the demolished Cumnor Place, including the early 14th-century east window, nave windows, the north door, head corbels, and other details, were incorporated into the rebuilt church. The church sits adjacent to the gardens of Wytham Abbey, the former seat of the Earls of Abingdon, which was restored in 1809-10.