Church of St Mary Magdalene is a Grade II listed building in the Vale of White Horse local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 February 1966. Church. 4 related planning applications.

Church of St Mary Magdalene

WRENN ID
patient-steeple-heron
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Vale of White Horse
Constituency
Oxford West and Abingdon MP: Layla Moran (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
9 February 1966
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Mary Magdalene, Barrow Road, St. Helen Without, OX13 6JF
OS grid reference
SU 480 980
Coordinates
51.67886, -1.30605
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St. Mary Magdalene is a Grade II listed building located on Barrow Road in St. Helen Without. It was constructed in 1855 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and features coursed and dressed limestone with a gabled stone-coped old tile roof. The church is designed in the Gothic Revival style, specifically in a late geometrical style, and includes a nave with a north porch and a chancel with a vestry.

The east end of the church has a three-light window flanked by offset buttresses. The chancel, which has two bays, and the four-bay nave feature hood moulds with head-stops over mainly two-light windows. There is a priest's door in the center of the south chancel wall and a plain door leading to the vestry. The north porch is timber-framed and has a moulded pointed doorway that frames mid-19th century double-leaf doors.

At the east gable of the nave, there is a belfry topped with a French-Gothic-style crocketed spire, which includes trefoiled lights and spandrels. Inside, the sanctuary has an encaustic tile floor, and the church contains a Gothic style communion rail and pews with carved bench ends. The chancel arch is supported by ballflower-carved corbels, and there is a plain stone pulpit along with an octagonal stone font inscribed with "suffer little children to come unto me." The chancel features a waggon roof, while the nave has a four-bay roof with curved principals and steeply-cambered collars that create a cruck effect. The church also includes mid-19th century stained glass in the east window and in the heads of three other windows, as well as 20th century memorial windows.

Local climate

Church of St Mary Magdalene sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 69% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 59% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 4 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. Vine Cottage Grade II 63 m
  2. 62 and 66, Barrow Road Grade II 82 m
  3. The Old Manor Grade II 97 m
  4. All Hallows Grade II 99 m
  5. Church Farmhouse and Attached Outbuildings Grade II 193 m
  6. The White House Grade II 242 m
  7. Manor Cottage Grade II 340 m
  8. The Manor Preparatory School Grade II 362 m
  9. Ock Mill House Grade II 1.1 km
  10. Monument to Prince Albert Grade II 1.2 km