Nominal: 1332.5 Hz Weight: 448 lbs Diameter: 26" Bell 1 of 3
Founded by Thomas C Lewis 1880
Dove Bell ID: 3280 Tower ID: 17397 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Heythrop: St Nicholas
Diocese of Oxford
Church, 627081
http://www.tewbenefice.org.ukOverview
Grid reference: SP 351 277
The extensive park of Heythrop (the house originally built by Smith of Warwick to designs by Thomas Archer in 1706-c.1720, restored in 1871 by Waterhouse after a fire and extended during its use as a Jesuit College between 1922 and 1969) lies along the top of a ridge in the undulating countryside east of Chipping Norton about sixteen miles north-west of Oxford. The village (which consists only of a few estate houses and cottages, the chancel of the old church, the Victorian church and large Victorian former rectory) lies at the north-west gate to the park and the church is prominently placed as a landmark over a wide area.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Four-bay nave with south aisle and south-west tower, the base of which forms the entrance to the church. The chancel has a transeptal vestry on the north and organ chamber on the south.
Footprint of Church buildings: 319 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was designed by Arthur W. Blomfiold (1829-1899) and was built in 1880. The builders were Messrs. Groves, the Clerk of the Works, Mr. Calloway of Heythrop and the foreman Joseph Buckingham. Some of the material is said to have come from the Roman Catholic chapel of 1822-6 which demolished the previous year, and part was quarried on the spot. The church was consecrated by the Bishop of Oxford on 28 September 1880. It cost £12,000 and was paid for by Albert Brassey, son of Thomas Brassey the railway magnate. Blomfield's other works in the county are Adwell (1864) the remarkable Romanesque church of St. Barnabas, Oxford (1868-72), Ramsden (1872), the chancel of St. Mary Banbury (1873) and Bladen (1891-2). Blomfield was knighted in 1889, and his obituaries stress his practical approach to design and, in particular, the planning of churches.
Exterior Description
The church is on a large scale, rather hard and somewhat townish for its completely rural setting.
The tower is big-boned, and a prominent landscape feature. It is of four stages with diagonal buttresses which diminish at each stage and rise above the parapet as diagonal crocketted pinnacles (the top of the south-east pinnacle has fallen). The lowest stage has a doorway of Early English character with attached shafts and moulded two centred arch under a gable in the south wall with angels, at the kneelers and an empty niche over the doorway. The plinths of the buttresses are embellished with a moulding which also encircles the rest of the building, and the stringcourse a little distance above rises on the west face to accomodate a bronze tablet which is a First World War memorial, the stone tablet below for the Second World War fitting slightly awkwardly. Above these is a lancet with a trefoil in the head which lights the porch within. The second stage has small lights in the west and south faces each with a pair of trefoil-headed lights and a trefoil above. The third stage is the smallest, with two plain rectangular lights in each face, and the uppermost stage, which houses the bells, has large three-light openings in each face with three trefoils in a circle in the head. The stepped parapet is pierced by alternately tall and short trefoil-headed arches.
The west window of the nave is of four lights with geometrical tracery and the windows on the north side are tall; each is of two lights save the westernmost which has a single light, and they are separated, by gabled buttresses. The south aisle has three small lancets to each bay set within arcading, the bays divided by small buttresses, and there is unfortunately no clerestory so that there seems to be an immense slope of roof tiles broken only by a short band of walling above the arcade. The south transept has two lancets and a group of three trefoils in a circle all embraced under a hoodmould to form a unified composition and at the foot of the wall in the south-east corner is a blocked Caernarvon headed doorway. The east wall of the transept has two single light windows with trefoils in the head of each. The north transept has a three-light window with a square head in the lower part of the gabled north wall with the text LET THY PRIESTS BE CLOTHED WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS carved on the stone lintel. The upper floor is lit by three large and three small trefoils in a circle, and is approached by a spiral staircase within an octagonal turret at the north- east angle. The east wall has a door for access from outside the church. The east window of the chancel is of three lights, the lower parts of each blocked for the reredos within and decorated with incised quatrefoils and circles. The head of this window has geometrical tracery, the central trefoil with a slightly over-bold attempt at Kentish split cusping.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
Only the east window has stained glass. The figure of Christ in the centre light flanked, rood-like, by the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John. Below in three small panels are Gethsemane, Christ before Pilate and The Way of the Cross while above are angels bearing shields with The Symbols of The Passion and the Agnus Dei in the centre light.
Interior
Interior Description
The inner door of the porch opens into the west bay of the nave under an arch within which it is set off-centre to the west. The body of the church is big, and rather bare both as a result of the ashlar wall facings and the singular lack of monuments or even stained glass. All the more impressive therefore is the east wall, arranged in three parts with blind arcading each side of the east window filled with fine (though decayed) stained glass of the Crucifixion by Burlison and Grylls. The plan of the building bears out Blomfield's desire to provide churches which would serve both as fine auditory buildings and seemly settings for ritual, whether advanced or simple. Thus the chancel arch is wide, and set on high triple colonettes above conical corbels which die into the wall.
In the nave, the south aisle is separated by a tall arcade of double chamfered arches carried on quatrofoil piers with moulded bases and capitals and at the east end the aisle opens through an arch into the side of the organ chamber, a practical consideration which was not by any means universally observed. The nave, indeed, is practical to the point of ordinariness, furnished simply with rows of deal pews with the font centrally placed beneath the west window. Only at roof level did the architect allow a little fancy to break out, both in the fine stone carving of the capitals and corbels of the wall shafts and in the series of four pairs of winged angels at the bases of the principals carrying shields and emblems alternately. The principal rafters are arch-braced with collar beams high above, and above the latter the space is filled with pierced wooden tracery. A slightly simpler design is followed, for the intermediate secondary rafters also. The quality of the roof is further enhanced by windbraces between the purlins. The chancel roof, which is of three bays, has prominent cusping in an enormous scale which is reminiscent of such examples as the remarkable roof of the hall at Athelhampton in Dorset. The chancel is divided from the nave by a low stone wall.
The stonework in the chancel is richer, with heavier mouldings to the arches opening into the north and south chambers and, as has already been mentioned, blind tracery against the east wall each side of the east window. The altar rails abut against small projections shaped rather like gabled buttresses which are also embellished with blind tracery and the sanctuary is lit by shafted single-light windows in the north and south walls, the latter with a bar cill forming a sedilia. The altar is given a spacious setting is an uncluttered sanctuary and attention is drawn to it by a long mosaic panel between it and the east window which is recessed within a frame of a hollow moulding filled with ball-flowers. A stone credence shelf is supported on an octagonal shaft in the south-east corner. There is one marbled step at the chancel arch and two at the communion rails with only the footpace eastward of that. The mosaic pavement has a background of the small white tesserae of which Blomfield was especially fond and this is scattered with small roses, fleurs-de-lys and cross motifs rather small. The pavements were made by Messrs. Burke of Newman Street, London. The carved stonework was executed by Thomas Earp who worked also, for example, for Street at St. Mary Magdalane, Paddington and St. John the Divine, Konnington, and carved the Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross for Sir Gilbert Scott.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
1880
The altar is plain, of oak and walnut, by A. Groves.
Reredos
The reredos consists of a mosaic panel set in a recessed stone frame above the altar. It represents The Last Supper but the maker is not recorded.
Pulpit
The pulpit is an oak hexagon with pierced traceried panels of walnut, by A. Groves.
Lectern
The lectern is a revolving two-faced desk on a carved pedestal, of oak and walnut by A. Groves.
Font (object)
The font has a square tapered bowl with stylised foliage carved on two sides and attenuated window tracery carved on the other two.
Bells
Nominal: 1592.5 Hz Weight: 280 lbs Diameter: 22.5" Bell 2 of 3
Founded by Thomas C Lewis 1880
Dove Bell ID: 49832 Tower ID: 17397 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1510.5 Hz Weight: 336 lbs Diameter: 23.75" Bell 3 of 3
Founded by Thomas C Lewis 1880
Dove Bell ID: 49833 Tower ID: 17397 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Churchyard
Grid reference: SP 351 277
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
The churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
| Name | Status | Number found in this site |
|---|---|---|
| Common yew | Notabletree | 1 |
| Common yew | Ancienttree | 1 |
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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