Three Churches by the Windrush: Cogges, Ducklington, and Witney

About the churches

The first church, and the starting point, St Mary’s Cogges, stands on the north side of the Windrush between Cogges Manor Farm and Cogges Priory. The church itself is medieval, effectively completed by the fifteenth century, but the lychgate through which you enter the churchyard is much later. A commemorative tablet in red terracotta on the right marks Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897, with the Queen’s head surrounded by the names of countries and dominions of the British Empire.

On the left, a brass plaque records the building of the lychgate. Because the stone was dressed before it was brought to the churchyard, the building was completed in the manner of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 6:7), ‘So that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard’. The Vicar of the time was Edward James Undy Payne, and the churchwardens were William Cantwell (‘A friend to all, an enemy to none’, as his tombstone describes him) and Harry Robbins, both of whom were wardens for over fifty years. William Cantwell was a builder who worked on the lychgate and lived in the School House (now the Church Office): his wife Sarah was the schoolmistress of what was to become the Blake School.

Entering by the south door, you see a large round pillar with a scalloped capital, marking the oldest (twelfth-century) part of the church. On the left is the tub-shaped font, and behind it, the War Memorial, carved with acorns and roses. We have a list of the Christian names of those commemorated which is read aloud each Remembrance Day, so we know that ‘A. Pratley’ was ‘Archie’. Some of the young men named here were actually christened in the font. Albert Miles, who died at 19 in the Gallipoli campaign, was baptized here on 26 April, 1896. Hariph Bernard Young, killed just over a week before the end of the war, had been baptized on 14 October 1894. Beyond it is the large fifteenth-century west window, reglazed in 1974 in memory of the Vicar who baptized them: Edward James Undy Payne, Vicar from 1883 to his death in 1914, and his wife Eveline.

Links with Cogges Manor Farm have always been strong. The room below the tower—now the vestry—is separated from the main body of the church by a wooden screen. This was given in the mid-1930s by members of the Mawle family, of Manor Farm, in memory of their parents Joseph and Elizabeth.

The screen is decorated with ears of corn, and carved with figures showing the seasonal activities of ploughing, sowing, and reaping. A rook sits in the furrow on the left-hand side, and there is an alert dog with crossed paws further round to the right. The screen reminds us that well into the twentieth century, Cogges was essentially an agricultural community, with fields where there are houses today. A rook sits in the furrow on the left-hand side, and there is an alert dog with crossed paws further round to the right. The screen reminds us that well into the twentieth century, Cogges was essentially an agricultural community, with fields where there are houses today.

Shallow steps from the North Aisle lead up into the fourteenth-century Blake Chapel, the last part of the church to be added, probably by the de Grey family who held the manor. The chapel, like the North Aisle, has a lively frieze of alternating human faces (two medieval hoodies look down from the south-east corner) with animals playing musical instruments. There are two windows in the north wall of the chapel, and would originally have been three—but the third one is now blocked by a later monument, to a family for whom this part of the church is now named. By the second half of the seventeenth century, the Manor had passed into the hands of the Blake family. Busts of three of them, William and Sara and their son Francis, look down from the Blake Memorial—blocking out an original third window in the north wall. Their impressively wigged busts look out impassively from beneath the livelier medieval carving. (Higher on the wall and to the left, a carved monkey with a harp could be seen as looking slightly quizzical.)

The masons who worked at Cogges it is thought also worked at St Bartholomew’s, Ducklington, where the north aisle was remodelled as a chantry chapel, with richly-carved canopies over the founders’ tombs.

One of the joys of visiting any church is ‘meeting’ some of the people who have played a significant role in its life. This time I was very pleased to make the acquaintance, via a memorial window in the north wall of the chancel, of a former Rector of Ducklington. This was William Dunn Macray, b. 1826, who at the age of 14 was appointed to the Bodleian post of ‘supernumary under assistant’ (those were the days, but his father had been the Taylorian’s first Librarian). After taking his degree, he joined the staff as a general assistant, and worked in the manuscript collections until he retired in 1905. He was installed at Ducklington as Rector in 1870 (presented by his college, Magdalen), and according to ODNB ‘served there, an exemplary parish priest, for forty two years’. He died in 1916. I thought this was a splendid example of the kind of scholar/incumbent who flourished in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Various members of the family are also commemorated, including his daughter Adela: she has a window showing Dorcas and St Cecilia by the Arts and Crafts artist Caroline Townsend.

The final church, St Mary the Virgin, Witney, is a fine spacious town church with a central tower and spire, which was remodelled in the thirteenth century. Witney grew wealthy from the wool trade, and its church reflects the prosperity of the town. Like the other two churches on this walk, we would primarily think of them as fine examples of medieval church architecture, but I always enjoy seeing what later centuries (and congregations) have contributed. St Mary’s has a particularly nice recent addition to its furnishings: a new nave altar with a design that links closely to Witney’s past of the wool trade and especially the weaving industry. It is made of cedar, from a cedar of Lebanon tree in the churchyard that had had to be felled. The new altar, fashioned from this, has a central support in the churchyard that had had to be felled. The new altar, fashioned from this, has a central support in the shape of a bobbin. Along the front edge, carved images evoke a shuttle, and the warp and weft of a loom. The new altar at once represents a twenty-first-century contribution to the fittings of the church, and reminds us of the source of the wealth that was needed to build the church in the thirteenth century, and make lavish later additions.

By Elizabeth Knowles

About the Author

Elizabeth Knowles is a renowned library researcher and historical lexicographer who devoted three decades of her career to Oxford University Press. Her time at OUP began with contributions to the OED Supplement and the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Subsequently, she spearheaded the Quotations publishing program, solidifying her reputation as a leading expert in quotations and lexicography.

In 1999, Knowles assumed the prestigious role of Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, a position she held continuously until her retirement from OUP in 2007. Under her editorial guidance, the eighth edition was published in 2014, marking a significant milestone in the dictionary’s history.

Knowles is a prolific writer and lecturer on the history of quotations and dictionaries. She has shared her extensive knowledge with both academic and general audiences, significantly enhancing our understanding of the role of quotations in language.

Beyond her work on the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Knowles is also the editor of “What They Didn’t Say: A Book of Misquotations” (2006) and “How To Read a Word” (2010). Her work continues to inspire and inform scholars, writers, and readers fascinated by the English language.