At the meeting of Council on 13th October 2026 grants to the value of £110,000 were awarded to 17 churches. Two churches received the largest grant of £25,000: St Michael, Barford and SS Mary & John Cowley, Oxford
Alongside the Phase I and Phase II category grants, 2 emergency grants and 1 feasibility grant was awarded.
St Michael, Barford (Grade I) received a grant of £25,000 for the upgrading of lighting heating and drainage
Built in 1150 the bell tower and North door are Norman. The doorway on the North side is stunning, with a 12th century beakhead ornament and original ironwork. The very heavy Norman tower is situated to the South of the chancel. Most of the rest of the church was rebuilt in the early Gothic style of the 13th century.
SS Mary & John, Cowley (Grade II) received a grant of £25,000 for the installation of an accessible toilet, kitchen and servery
Built between 1875 and 1912 to a design by A M Mowbray (1849-1915), the building is an accomplished example of the Decorated Gothic Revival style. The building is closely associated with the Anglo-Catholic movement. Buried in the churchyard is Father Richard Meux Benson (1824-1915) founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist known as the Cowley Fathers—the first post-Reformation men’s religious order in the Church of England
St Augustine of Canterbury, East Hendred (Grade II*) received a grant of £10,000 for the re-roofing of the South Aisle
The church has 12th century origins. The 14th and 15th century features were heavily restored and remodelled in c.1860 by Henry Woodyer (1816-96). It contains a number of interesting features, including a 17th century octagonal wooden Pulpit and a 15th century wooden Screen in the South chapel.
St Mary the Virgin, Charlbury (Grade I) received a grant of £8,000 for the re-roofing of the South Aisle.
Parts of the present building are Norman. The Tower was added in the 13th century, and the West door inserted at the end of the 15th century when the height of the tower was increased. The four-faced Clock was installed in 1885. The sundial on the South wall is dated 1776.
All Saints, Cuddesdon (Grade I) received a grant of £8,000 for the restoration of the lychgate and supporting walls
Founded around 1180 by Abingdon Abbey, the cruciform Norman church has long-standing ties to the theological college in the village when it became a focus for the High Church Movement. The lych gate was designed by G E Street (1824-81).
Sacred Heart RC, Henley on Thames (Grade II) received a grant of £6,000 for the installation of photovoltaic units to provide power to the church building.
Built in 1935-6 in an Arts and Crafts style. It contains the altar and East window from the chapel of Danesfield designed by A W N Pugin (1811-62) which was demolished in 1901.
Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry (Grade II) received a grant of £5,000 for repairs to the roof and interior walls.
Built in 1848-9 to a design by George Gilbert Scott (1824-81) in the 15th century Decorated Style. Its East window Christ in Glory was designed by Ninian Comper (1894-1960) one of the last major figures in the Gothic Revival Movement. C S Lewis (author and academic) is buried in the churchyard. In 1991 the Narnia Window designed by Sally Scott (1939- ) was installed in the North aisle.
St Agatha, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell (Grade II*) received a grant of £5,000 for the re-roofing of the Bell Tower and North Aisle
St Agatha’s was built in 1153 by the Bishop of Winchester, Henri de Blois, on land he owned at Brightwell and on which Brightwell Castle stood. The existing building illustrates various architectural styles which have occurred over the last nine centuries.
St Leonard, Grimsbury, Banbury (Grade III) received a grant of £4,000 for the replacement of lower level guttering.
Built in 1890 in the Gothic Revival style by local architect Walter Edward Mills, (1850-1910) with North and South aisles connected to the nave by four-bay arcades. The central pillars are brightly painted to reflect the decoration of the ceiling designed in the style of a canal narrowboat.
St John the Evangelist Hempton (Grade II) received a grant of £4,000 for the installation of protective wire netting to the Nave ceiling.
Built in 1850–1851 to a design in the Gothic Revival style by the Rev. William Wilson. The interior contains an ancient 12th-century Norman font gifted from Holy Trinity Church in Over Worton. The netting will allow the church to be used until such time as proper repairs can be made to the plasterwork.
St Andrew, Letcombe Regis (Grade II*) received a grant of £2,000 for the restoration of the church clock and dial.
The church is mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. It retains its 12th-century origins, including the lower Tower and a circular tub-shaped Font. Other changes are recorded in 14th and 15th centuries. The South aisle, Vestry and Porch are Victorian additions c.1863, designed by William Butterfield. (1814-1900).
St Mary the Virgin, Upton (Grade I*) received a grant of £1,500 for repairs to the Font
The building dates from the 11th or 12th centuries, and though a major restoration took place in 1885, the church has not changed much in almost a millennium. The Font, by the South door, is probably as old as the church. One of the most imposing features of the church is the Chancel arch, of a simple 12th century semi-circular design. The 19th century stone altar is a classic of Ecclesiological and Tractarian design.
St Mary the Virgin, Ashbury (Grade I) received a grant of £1,000 for the installation of wire mesh protection to windows
A church has stood on this site since before AD 947, originally built for the Abbot of Glastonbury. The 12th-century West end is the oldest surviving part of the current structure. The Tower and North/South chapels date from the 13th century. The Chancel dates from the 14th century. In the 20th century the artist Martin Travers converted the North Transept into a Chapel of Saint Hubert in memory of Evelyn, Countess Craven who had lived at Ashdown House in the parish.
St Andrew, Chinnor (Grade I) received a grant of £1,000 for the replacement of old tarmac pathway and accessibility ramp.
The church has Saxon origins but is primarily 14th century with later additions. In 1863 G E Street (1824-81) undertook alterations to the Nave. The church contains one of the largest collections of monumental brasses in the country. Also noteworthy are the Thornhill Cartoons, a set of 16 framed oil paintings depicting life-size figures of the apostles and evangelists, produced for the North Rose window of Westminster Abbey . Designed in 1721 by Sir James Thornhill (1676–1734), a leading English Baroque decorative and history painter, they were copied by the glass painter, Joshua Price.
The Emergency/Supplementary/Feasibility grants were awarded to
Abbey of SS Peter & Paul , Dorchester (Grade I ) received a grant of £2,000 for stone repairs to the Tower
The building was begun in the 12th century, replacing two earlier Saxon cathedrals (some Saxon fabric is still evident in the North wall of the Nave). The Norman building expanded in the 13th century and was richly aggrandised in the early 14th century when the Chancel was added with its wonderful window sculpted with the Tree of Jesse, its stained glass and its exquisite sedilia. The Great Tower, was rebuilt in 1602, but incorporating a 14th century spiral staircase.
St Mary, Garsington (Grade II*) received a grant of £1,000 for repairs to the buttresses.
Essentially a 12th century church with a Chancel dated 1291 and an Early English North aisle. It was sympathetically restored in 1848-9 under the direction of the Gothic Revival architect Joseph Clarke of London (1819-88)
St Giles, Noke, (Grade II*) received a grant of £1,700 for a feasibility study for the installation of a new WC/Servery.
There was a church at Noke at least by 1191, when a priest was first recorded. The present stone building dates from around 1270; the list of rectors begins in 1272. The building consists of a small Nave and Chancel, and is essentially in the Early English Gothic style, but like so many small churches bears witness to repairs and alterations through the years.