Church Of St Laurence

Church of St Laurence, Combe

This church was built in 1395 for Eynsham Abbey, as confirmed by a datestone on the building. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings. The chancel is rendered over, and the roofs are of stone slate (gabled over the chancel) and lead (shallow-gabled over the nave and aisles). Stone slate gables cover the south porch and flagstones cover the north porch. The church comprises a chancel, nave, and west tower, all in Perpendicular style.

The east window has five lights with panel tracery. The north side features a two-light window with a restored head. The south wall has label moulds over two- and three-light square-headed windows and a two-centred double hollow-chamfered doorway. Off-set corner buttresses support the structure throughout.

The four-bay nave has hood moulds over three-light windows with panel tracery. Offset buttresses divide each bay, which features a parapet carved with a quatrefoil frieze.

The south porch has a moulded pointed-arched doorway set within a stone-coped gable with offset corner buttresses and a fleur-de-lys finial carrying the 1395 date. Cinquefoil-headed side lights flank the entrance. Moulded stone ribs support the ceiling. An ancient plank door with iron fittings sits within a hollow-chamfered pointed-arched doorway.

The north porch contains a hood mould over a casement-moulded doorway, a late 19th or early 20th-century three-light window to the left, and an early 12th-century round-arched inner doorway.

The three-stage west tower has offset corner buttresses and a label mould over a pointed-arched hollow-chamfered doorway. Cusped mouchettes fill the spandrels. A restored three-light west window with panel tracery opens above. Two-light belfry windows have cusped lights and hood-moulds with head stops. A string course runs beneath a crenellated parapet with carved gargoyles, carved heads, and corner finials.

Interior Features

The chancel contains a trefoiled piscina and three sedilia set beneath crocketed canopies. A late 14th-century three-bay wagon roof with corbelled posts braced laterally to an ashlar plate spans the chancel. A double-chamfered chancel arch opens to the nave. To the north are late 14th-century rood stairs; to the south, a canopied image niche and trefoiled piscina.

A rare late 14th-century polygonal stone pulpit, carved with blind tracery and resting on a ribbed stem, stands in the nave. The nave roof is a four-bay depressed tie-beam structure, braced to corbelled posts.

A 19th-century font stands to the west; a 15th-century octagonal font with relief carvings of figures remains on the floor to the east.

Wall Paintings

Parts of a complete painted scheme dating to around 1440 survive, discovered in 1894. A Doom painting above the chancel arch shows Christ flanked by Apostles with scenes of the Last Judgement. A Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John appears to the north-east. Part of an Annunciation remains to the south-east, with the hands of God above Gabriel holding a scroll. St Christopher fording a stream was painted over the south door beneath a 17th-century painting of the Ten Commandments with Moses and Aaron. St Catherine holding a sword and wheel appears near the north door. Two 17th-century devotional texts are painted on the north and south walls.

Stained Glass

The east window contains 15th-century glass with canopies set within panel tracery. The tracery glass shows Christ and the Virgin in Majesty flanked by two Cherubim and a censing angel. The east window of the south side of the nave displays a figure of St James Major holding a wallet, staff, and pilgrim's hat. Nave windows contain 15th-century Cherubim set in panel tracery lights. A late 19th-century west window of the south side of the nave incorporates reset 15th-century fragments.

Other Fittings

An 18th-century communion rail remains in situ.