Church of St Mary
CHURCH OF ST MARY
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1047587
- Date first listed:
- 18-Jul-1963
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Mary
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2005-03-31
- Reference:
- IOE01/13875/09
- Rights:
- © Mr David S. Biggin. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1047587
- Date first listed:
- 18-Jul-1963
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Mary
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Oxfordshire
- District:
- South Oxfordshire (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Waterperry with Thomley
- National Grid Reference:
- SP 62956 06322
Details
WATERPERRY SP60NW 6/190 Church of St. Mary 18/07/63
GV I
Church. Saxon, early C13 and early C14, restored 1840. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and some weatherboarding; artificial stone-slate and lead roofs. Nave, chancel, south aisle and west tower. C13 chancel has 3 original lancets in each of the side walls, plus a fourth to south dated from the C19 rebuilding of the east wall with its 3-light window of Reticulated tracery; blocked priests door to north. The steep-pitched roof has the base of a sanctus bellcote on the west gable parapet. The south aisle has an early C14 east window of 3 lights with a large sexfoil in the tracery, and, to south, a low C15 window of 2 ogee lights and a 3-light C15/early C16 window of 3 cinqefoil lights; C14 south doorway has a keeled roll dying into wave-moulded jambs. The north wall of the nave has 2 more identical windows with sexfoils in the tracery and a blocked C14 doorway. At the east end of the wall is a rectangular stair projection. The west wall has a 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery between deep stepped and gabled buttresses; to right is a C14 doorway and the central gable is taken up to form the base of the weatherboarded tower which has a shallow pyramid roof. Interior: Chancel has a plastered 7-canted roof, with 3 heavy tie beams, and a late-medieval aumbry in the north wall. C14 chancel arch springing from corbel heads is set beneath a high Saxon arch with plain imposts. Transitional 3-bay arcade has fluted and scalloped capital to east and masonry pier to west. King-post roof to nave, probably C16. West tower is supported on internal posts with large curved braces. Fittings include C18 panelled pine box pews, reading desk dated 1632, elaborately-canopied pulpit inscribed "GM/1677", C17 barley-twist communion rails, late C18 Gothic screen forming entrance lobby (removed from former chapel in Waterperry House (q.v.)), and a painted Royal Arms dated 1757. Stained glass in windows include C13, C14, C15 and C16 figures, shields and quarries, plus some C19 and C20 glass, Monuments include C14 full-length effigy under elaborate double-cusped and crocketted canopy; C17 alabaster wall monuments to Sir Francis Curson, with kneeling figures, and to Magdalen Curson with framed inscription; large marble group by Chantry dated 1821; a series of brasses including one palimpsest, plus many C17, C18 and C19 ledgers to Cursons and others. (V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.V, pp,306-8; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp,826-8).
Listing NGR: SP6295306319
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 246710
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, (1957), 306-8
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974), 826-8
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 07-Jun-2026 at 15:35:43.
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