Church of St Mary is a Grade II listed building in the West Oxfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 1 March 1990. A Gothic Church.

Church of St Mary

WRENN ID
sleeping-buttress-crag
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
West Oxfordshire
Constituency
Witney MP: Charlie Maynard (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
1 March 1990
Type
Church
Period
Gothic
Address
Church of St Mary, Holwell
OS grid reference
SP 232 091
Coordinates
51.78042, -1.66501
Source
Historic England listing

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

Description

The Church of St Mary is a parish church that was rebuilt in 1895 by W.E. Mills of Banbury. It is constructed of coursed rubble with a concrete tile roof and features a curvilinear style dating from around 1500, influenced by both French and English designs. The church has a three-bay nave with an octagonal stone bellcote at the west end and a south porch. The chancel is two bays long and includes a south transept and a matching organ chamber or vestry to the north.

Architectural details include a moulded eaves cornice, impost and cill bands. The nave windows are stilted and feature curvilinear tracery, as do the east window and the south chapel window. The east and south gables have blind tracery ashlar panels, and the porch has traceried side lights. At the west end, there are two stepped buttresses supporting the bellcote, framing a transomed curvilinear window with an embattled cill above a thickening for the baptistery recess.

Inside, the church is complete except for the polychromy and is considered more attractive than the exterior. It features tiled alleys, oak pews, moulded arches for the chancel and north and south sides, and an altar with riddell posts capped by angels, along with a piscina. The nave has an arch-braced roof, while the chancel and transepts have boarded ceilings. The pulpit incorporates Flemish 17th-century carved panels, and the glass in the east window was created by H.W. Bryans.

The church was originally a small 13th-century structure, depicted by Bucklet as a plain two-cell church in 1825. It was rebuilt in 1842 in the Italianate style, which included a charming campanile, as shown in a drawing located inside the church.

Local climate

Church of St Mary receives an average of 800 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 55% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 56% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 72% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 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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