Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the West Oxfordshire local planning authority area, England. A Medieval Church. 1 related planning application.
Church of St Mary
- WRENN ID
- leaning-string-vale
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- West Oxfordshire
- Constituency
- Witney MP: Charlie Maynard (LD)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Mary, Swinbrook and Widford
- OS grid reference
- SP 279 121
- Coordinates
- 51.80727, -1.59547
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary is a church with origins dating back to the 11th century, featuring a north aisle from the 12th century and a likely south aisle from the 13th century. The tower was added around 1822, with a vestry and restoration occurring in the 20th century. The building is constructed of uncoursed stone rubble and has stone slate roofs, although the roof of the tower is not visible.
The church has a 2-bay chancel, a 3-bay aisled nave, and a west tower. On the south side, there is a stone porch to the left of the aisle with a 2-centre archway supported by corbels, leading to a 2-centre inner doorway that has a 20th-century plank door. The centre of the aisle features paired cusped lancets, while to the right is a 2-light stone mullion window with a hood mould. There is a blocked doorway to the right of centre and paired cusped lancets on the right return of the aisle. A single-light window is located to the left of the chancel, alongside a blocked 3-light stone mullion window with cusped lights and a hood mould to the right of the chancel. The clerestory has four cusped windows, and the east end of the chancel is adorned with a 5-light window featuring rectilinear tracery.
On the north side, a 20th-century vestry with hood moulds is positioned to the left of the aisle's centre, and to the right, there are ogee-headed lights. A 3-light stone mullion window with ogee-headed lights is located to the left of the aisle, along with four cusped windows in the clerestory. The west end has a blocked 2-centre-arched doorway at the centre and a 2-light window with reticulated tracery above it. The tower is supported by projecting buttresses and features 4-centre-arched openings on each face, topped with a battlemented parapet.
Inside, the chancel boasts an arch-braced collar truss roof. There are Fettiplace monuments in the chancel, with those to the left dating from around 1613 and 1686, each featuring three reclining figures on shelves with ornate round-arched surrounds. To the right, a monument from 1743 by James Annis includes a marble bust set against drapery and cherubs, framed by a broken-pediment surround. The church also has 15th-century choir stalls with misericords, a 2-centre chancel arch supported by Romanesque columns, and a nave with a 20th-century braced collar-truss roof. The nave arcades consist of three 2-centre arches on Romanesque piers, and there is a 17th-century wooden pulpit on a 20th-century stone stepped base. Fragments of medieval glass can be seen in a window of the south aisle, and a 15th-century stone font is also present.
Local climate
Church of St Mary receives an average of 790 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 58% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 59% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 65% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 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
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