Church Of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock

A church of Late 12th-century origin, enlarged during the later medieval period and substantially rebuilt by architect A.W. Blomfield in 1878, when he constructed the north aisle. The west tower was built separately by John Yenn in 1785. The building is constructed of limestone rubble with squared and coursed limestone, ashlar quoins and dressings; the west tower is of limestone ashlar. The chancel has a gabled stone slate roof, the north aisle has a concrete tile roof, and other roofs are shallow-pitched lead.

The church comprises a chancel, aisled nave, and west tower. The chancel's east window is a late 19th-century five-light window of intersecting tracery. The south side of the chancel displays an early 14th-century two-light rectilinear window, a 13th-century buttress, a 15th-century pointed arched blocked door, and a 15th-century three-light window with panel tracery.

The south aisle features a late 13th-century segmental-arched three-light window with trefoil heads at its east end, late 19th-century buttresses, and a late 12th-century doorway with two orders and zig-zag mouldings divided by roll moulding. It also contains two mid-13th-century plate-tracery windows and late 19th-century two-light geometrical-style windows to the west. The north aisle is eight bays long with buttressed walls and a crenellated parapet, featuring two- and three-light Decorated-style windows.

A late 15th-century five-bay clerestorey with three-light ogee-headed windows runs along the nave. An early 14th-century five-light Curvilinear window occupies the west end. The west porch dates to the 15th century and has offset corner buttresses, a canopied niche over a pointed moulded doorway, and two-light cinquefoiled windows. An early 14th-century pointed moulded west doorway features head stops to its labels.

The west tower, built in 1785, has rusticated quoin strips and a bracketed cornice over a heavy panelled north door. First-floor windows with leaded lights are set in semi-circular arched architraves with impost and keyblocks. The next stage contains clocks with swag surrounds on each side. The upper stage has semi-circular arched windows, each framed by an arch of blocked voussoirs, Doric pilasters and apron, set within blind arches. A dentilled cornice and balustraded parapet with corner finials complete the tower.

The interior contains a coloured tile reredos and trefoiled piscina of 1878 and a 15th-century moulded pointed arched doorway to the north. A late 19th-century triple arcade serves the north chapel, which has late 19th-century archways to the vestry and north aisle. The organ loft in the north chapel contains a finely carved Jacobean frieze. A late 19th-century chancel arch separates the chancel from the nave. A 15th-century rood screen has double-leaf doors and open tracery to its upper panels with brattished cornice.

The roof structure above the chancel dates to the late 16th or early 17th century, with arch-bracing, moulded ashlar plate and carved pendentives to false hammer beams. The nave arcades date to the late 19th century; the south arcade contains three 13th-century capitals with carved heads set in stiff-leaf foliage and another 13th-century carved capital. A late 19th-century wood pulpit and bronze lectern stand in the nave, alongside a 15th-century octagonal stone font with blind tracery and a 14th-century trefoiled piscina in the south aisle.

The nave roof dates to the late 15th century with six bays; braces sprung from late 19th-century corbels feature traceried spandrels, with carved bosses to the soffits of tie beams, moulded and brattished ashlar plate, and mouchettes carved in the roof spandrels. The south aisle roof is also late 15th-century, with moulded beams.

Monuments in the south aisle include a brass of Richard Bailly, died 1441, 18th and 19th-century memorial tablets, and a brass of Hieronimum Keyt, died 1631, showing him kneeling at prayer. A monument to Jerome Keyt, died 1631, features an oval tablet set in a coloured architectural frame with a shaped pediment over a heraldic achievement set in a broken pediment.