Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a small parish church with origins dating back to the 12th century. The chancel was built in the 13th century, and the porch was added in the 15th century when the church was remodelled. Further alterations occurred in 1869, when the west bay and bellcote were added by E J Tarver. The church is constructed of rubble with a Cotswold stone roof and coped verges.

The building consists of a nave, now extended to three bays, and a two-bay chancel. The chancel features lancet windows and a corbel table, with an unusual large cinquefoil east window set within a roll moulding, documented in a drawing from 1825. A restored square-headed window to the right of the porch contains three cusped-head lights and a label. A 12th-century south doorway has a single order, set-back nook shafts with flaring chevron, a rebated tympanum and a scratchdial. The porch has side buttresses and a wave-mould doorway, also containing a scratchdial; inside is a cusped niche, formerly a piscina from the chancel. The west bay has plate tracery windows on both the north and south sides, with dated label stops on the north and a flowing ribbon design on the south. A square-plan bellcote features three arched, louvred belfry windows on each side.

The interior is plastered. Part of the roof likely dates to the 16th century with arch-braced collars and queen struts. A tall Norman north doorway now leads to the vestry. The chancel arch is wide and lightly pointed, with a chip-carved impost string and cushion caps with beaded panels to the north. A segmental head recess in the chancel may have once held a 17th-century communion table, possibly serving as a zone for a founder’s or benefactor’s tomb, beneath a small north window. The main altar is a re-used mensa slab, discovered in 1933. The south chancel window shows evidence of painted decoration, including florets. The church contains two significant monuments, as described in Pevsner’s “Buildings of England: Oxfordshire”. The monument to the Reverend Richard Thorneton (died 1613) unusually includes a helm above heraldic shields, which have been amateurishly retouched. The Trinder monument on the nave's north wall was built without consideration of the original box pews and connects with the roof structure. A distinctive font has a quadrilobe and reeded base chalice. Early 16th-century glass is present in the south window of the nave. The advowson was formerly held by the Hospitallers of Quennington and later by Edington Priory.