Church of St Laurence is a Grade II* listed building in the Vale of White Horse local planning authority area, England. First listed on 24 November 1966. A Medieval Church. 1 related planning application.
Church of St Laurence
- WRENN ID
- tilted-flagstone-moon
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Vale of White Horse
- Constituency
- Didcot and Wantage MP: Olly Glover (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 24 November 1966
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Laurence, West Challow, OX12 9TN
- OS grid reference
- SU 366 883
- Coordinates
- 51.59262, -1.47209
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Laurence is a Grade II* listed building located in West Challow. It dates from the late 12th century, with a chancel added in the late 13th century, and underwent restoration in the mid-19th century. The church features roughcast over limestone walling, limestone ashlar dressings, and a stone slate roof, with a 20th-century lateral brick stack on a limestone ashlar base.
The structure includes a nave and chancel. The east window is a two-light design from the late 13th century, flanked by angle buttresses. The chancel's side walls contain two-light square-headed windows from the 15th century. On the south side of the nave, there are mid-19th century plate-tracery two-light windows surrounding an early 16th-century four-centred moulded and blocked doorway. The north side features a mid-19th century two-light window in the style of the 15th century and a late 12th-century round-headed doorway with waterleaf capitals on a single order of shafts.
A 15th-century gabled porch has cusped and decorative bargeboards, with a timber structure and screens over a low limestone rubble wall, also restored in the mid-19th century. The west gable is supported by angle buttresses and includes a late 13th-century trefoil-headed lancet and a double bellcote from the same period. The roof is gabled.
Inside, the chancel has two corbels for statues, a piscina restored in the mid-19th century, and a wall tablet commemorating Elizabeth Hobbs, who died in 1757, and John Hobbs, who died in 1730. The chancel screen from the 15th century features one-light divisions. The nave contains an early 17th-century panelled pulpit and a tub-shaped font from the 13th century. The roof has a tie-beam design from the 18th century. The stained glass is primarily from the mid to late 19th century, with fragments of 15th-century glass found at the top of the east window.
Local climate
Church of St Laurence receives an average of 750 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 69% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 63% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 55% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- 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
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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