At the meeting of Council on 13th February a total sum of £204,500 was awarded to 15 churches. Two of these awards had been made under the Emergency and Feasibility grant schemes.
Once again Council was able to be generous in its allocations and was delighted to assign the David Booth Award to All Saints Church, Marcham.
All Saints Church, Marcham (Grade II*) received a grant of £50,000 for refurbishment of WC and kitchen.
The church is of pre-Conquest origin and it has been suggested that it was an Anglo-Saxon Minster. The church was originally built of locally quarried Corallian Rag and was largely rebuilt in a roughly coursed limestone in 1837-8. The architect was William Fisher of Oxford, and his restoration is in the Perpendicular Gothic style.
St Andrew, Kingham (Grade II*) received a grant of £35,000 for roof and tower repairs.
There has been a church on the site for at least 900 years. The font is 13th century; the tower is 15th century. The nave roof, dated 1774, has carved and gilded wooden bosses. The rest of the church was remodelled in 1851-3 in Decorated style by William Dowdeswell (1872-1930).
St Michael, Barford St Michael (Grade I) received a grant of £30,000 for roof repairs and repointing. This was in addition to an earlier emergency grant of £500 to deal with the leaking roof.
The bell tower and north doorway of St Michael’s are Norman. Much of the rest of the church was rebuilt in the 13th century in the Early English Gothic style. It contains a notable survival of Romanesque north and south doorways.
All Saints, Middleton Stoney (Grade II*) received a grant of £25,000 for provision of a servery and toilet facilities; renovation and relocation of the Nicholson organ.
This building is Norman in origin with many additions and alterations over the centuries. It contains the Child-Villiers family chapel, added in 1805. A major restoration was undertaken in 1858 under the direction of Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-73) and in 1860 the 14th century Gothic baptismal font was presented to the church. GE Street (1824-81) added a number of elements in 1868, most noteworthy the choir stalls and pulpit.
St Mary the Virgin, Kirtlington (Grade II) received a grant of £15,000 for repairs to the porch.
The oldest visible parts of the present church include the early 12th century Norman arches supporting the central bell tower, and a tympanum of the same date over the vestry door. Beneath the floor of the chancel are the foundations of a former apse that also was built in the early 12th century. The church has undergone many changes over the centuries including significant work in the 18th century for the Dashwood family who had the Lady Chapel converted to their family chapel and burial vault. George Gilbert Scott rebuilt the chancel and chancel arch in 1877 He discovered Norman apsidal foundations and his reconstruction of the chancel used medieval details as a pattern for the carved chancel furnishings.
St Mary Magdalene, Stoke Talmage (Grade II) received a grant of £10,000 for repairs to gutters and downpipes.
The first clear historical reference to the church dates from 1219. It was restored in 1758 and in 1860 it was restored and extended to plans by George Gilbert Scott.
St Martin, Shutford (Grade II) received a grant of £8,000 for repairs to plaster and redecoration.
The building dates from the 12th Century. It has a number of features of interest, including a late Norman nave arcade with round pillars and scalloped capitals, a good example of a 15th Century oak screen, and incised crosses on the South doorway. These are believed to have been carved during the Middle Ages by pilgrims en-route to Santiago De Compostella in northwest Spain.
St Mary, Ashbury (Grade I) received a grant of £8,000 for stonework repairs.
The earliest part of the present church is the 12th century west end. It was probably cruciform originally, with a central tower, but has been much altered over time. The South or Lady Chapel was originally a chantry and features the tomb of the founder.
St Laurence, Warborough (Grade II*) received a grant of £7,000 for stonework repairs and renovation.
The church building is in parts early 13th century (Chancel-early English), altered in 14th and 15th centuries in perpendicular style The font is the oldest feature of the church and dates from c1200 and was probably retained from an earlier church in the parish. The tower was rebuilt in 1666 The Gothic Revival architects, G F Bodley and Thomas Garner restored the chancel in 1881, major restoration of the interior was undertaken in 1912-14.
All Saints Chapel, Goosey (Grade II*) received a grant of £4,000 for drainage repairs.
Established in the 8th century by monks of Abingdon Abbey the existing building dates from the 13th century. The chancel dates from the 16th century and in the 19th century the vestry was added. A medieval cross shaft stands in the churchyard.
Holy Trinity, West Hendred (Grade I) received a grant of £3,000 for the installation of under-pew heaters.
Mentioned in the Doomsday book and mostly rebuilt in the 14th century all in the late Decorated period. The southern porch was added in C15. Little alteration has been made in the structure since that date. It contains exceptional mediaeval slipware tiles in the chancel and nave and some fine Jacobean woodwork.
St Mary Chesterton ((II*) received a grant of £2,000 for clock repairs.
The church has both Saxon and Norman origins and has undergone many changes over the centuries. It contains a 12th century font and a fine decorated sedilia. In 1866 F.C. Penrose (1817-1903) restored much of the building, including the windows in the south aisle and some of those in the north aisle. He also added a turret staircase to the tower. The tower clock was added in 1884
St Luke Garford (Grade II*) received a grant of £2,000 for bell repairs.
St. Luke’s was probably a ‘chapel of ease’ to the parish church at Marcham (c.1291). Parts of the building date from the 12th century, but mostly it is a Victorian rebuild of 1880 by the architect Edwin Dolby of Abingdon (1838-1900). The oldest features are the 12th century lancets of the east window, and 12th century south porch doorway; on the south side the 14th century square-headed window in the nave, and portions of the large square-headed window in the chancel which date from the 16th century; and the 15th century open traceried panels along the cornice of the chancel screen.
St Michael and All Angels, Oxford (Grade II) received a grant of £1,500 for repairs to guttering and soffits. The church was also awarded a grant of £2,000 to facilitate a feasibility study relating to decarbonisation of the building.
St. Michael’s was designed by A.M. Mowbray (1849-1915) as a cruciform Early English Gothic Revival building,. The building was never completed and over the years since its consecration it has been extended and enlarged.
St Leonard, Waterstock (Grade II*) received a grant of £1,500 for window replacement.
The current building dates from the end of the 15th century. It contains remnants of mediaeval window glass which were inserted into the Ashhurst family armorial window. Some rebuilding was executed in 1790 and in 1858 G E Street (1824-81) restored it in the Gothic Revival style. It is the burial place of the early 17th century Puritan writer William ‘Eternity’ Tipping