Church of St Mary

Details

SP6022 LAUNTON BICESTER ROAD (South side)

13/89 Church of St. Mary 07/12/66

GV I

Church. Late Cl2, C13, C14 and C15, restored C19. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; old plain-tile and lead roofs. Chancel, aisled nave, south porch and west tower. Tiled C15 chancel, with plinth and stepped diagonal buttresses, has a 3-light Perpendicular-style east window (mostly 1851) and 2-light side windows with 4-centred arches; the western window, south side, is probably C16, being larger and uncusped. South aisle has a 4-centre arched 3-light east window with Perpendicular drop tracery; to south are 2 large square-headed 3-light traceried windows, and the parapet has a C17 inscription and a sundial. Tiled C15 south porch has a Tudor-arched entrance and a group of 3 trefoil windows, (inserted C19) and it shelters the C15 south doorway. North aisle has a 3-centre arched 3-light east window with Perpendicular drop tracery; to north is a large 3-light square-headed traceried window plus a small moulded 4-centre-arched doorway (now blocked), and to west a square-headed 2-light C15/C16 window. East gable of nave has a blocked C13 trefoil-headed opening and the remains of a second opening, probably later; C15/C16 clerestory windows to north and south have 2 cusped lights. Late C12 tower, with a plain parapet rising from a moulded string, has a lancet to west, and bell-chamber openings of 2 pointed arches within a semi-circular rubble outer arch; the massive flying buttresses were added 1891 by R. Blomfield. Interior: chancel has a 2-seat sedilia with cusped Tudor arches and flowers and foliage in the spandrels and cresting; similar piscina arch has a label mould with foliage stops but the bowl has been restored. Roof dates from the restoration of c.1850. Chancel arch and 4-bay north arcade are late C14, with octagonal piers and moulded capitals; south arcade has 3 early-C13 circular columns with moulded capitals, one with fleurs de lys and grotesques on a band of nailhead ornament, but was rebuilt with C14 octagonal responds and arches of 2 hollow-chamfered orders. Tower arch of 3 chamfered orders dying into walls. Small C15 piscina and mutilated cusped stoup in south aisle. Nave and aisle roofs, with stop-chamfered joists and purlins, moulded cambered tie beams and, in nave, arched braces from moulded posts look C15 but are dated late C16 by Sharpe. Plain octagonal font on stem. Medieval stone mensa in south aisle. Royal arms of 1617 over south door. Oak lectern (1917), with a tapering crenellated stem surrounded by canopied angels, and oak screen (1910) by J.0. Scott, with pierced friezes of flowers, a cresting of roses, and pierced panels carved with birds and musical motifs are both very fine pieces in Arts and Crafts style. Remainder of fittings C19. C19 glass in chancel and south aisle. Classical wall tablet in south aisle commemorates Shelomith Deeley (died 1736). Porch has a C15 roof with curved windbraces and the small windows contain fragments of medieval stained glass. (V.C.H.: Oxfordshire: Vol.VI, p.241; Buildings of England: 0xfordshire, pp.681-2; Frederick Sharpe, The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Launton, 1971).

Listing NGR: SP6043422828

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

243474

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, (1959), 241
Sharpe, F, The Church of St Mary the Virgin Launton, (1971)
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974)

End of official list entry

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