Weight: 1768 lbs Diameter: 45" Bell 1 of 1
Founded by Mears & Stainbank 1896
Dove Bell ID: 58513 Tower ID: 22634 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Oxford: St Philip & St James
Overview
Grid reference: SP 508 75
No doubt partly as a result of its position in a centre of learning, this church has become one of the most famous examples of ecclesiastical Gothic Revival architecture in the country. It dates from the potent years of High Victorian architecture when the first imitative designs of the early Revivalists had been superseded. by the more free-ranging concepts of the younger generation. Street was in the forefront of this movement, and this church occupies a central position in the most uncompromisingly original phase of his career, not only as the earlier by far of his only two fully cruciform churches, but also by reason of its boldly experimental Tractarian planning, later evolved into distinctive types at All Saints Clifton and St. John the Divine Kennington.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Nave of four bays with aisles and clerestory, south-west porch and north-east Advent chapel (originally the vestry) ; crossing with tower and spire above, north and south transepts, the former with a vestry beyond and the latter with an apse. The sanctuary is housed in an eastern apse.
Footprint of Church buildings: 697 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was designed by George Edmund Street, and the foundation stone was laid on 8 May 1860. In 1854 the development of this part of Oxford had hardly begun, but the growth of population was rapid enough to cause concern to churchmen and in September of that year the churchwardens of St. Giles sent a petition to the President and Fellows of St. John's College.
Exterior Description
No doubt partly as a result of its position in a centre of learning, this church has become one of the most famous examples of ecclesiastical Gothic Revival architecture in the country. It dates from the potent years of High Victorian architecture when the first imitative designs of the early Revivalists had been superseded. by the more free-ranging concepts of the younger generation. Street was in the forefront of this movement, and this church occupies a central position in the most uncompromisinglyoriginal phase of his career, not only as the earlier by far of his only two fully cruciform churches, but also by reason of its boldly experimental Tractarian planning, later evolved into distinctive types at All Saints Clifton and St. John the Divine Kennington.
The style is indeed Middle Pointed, with strong French overtones, especially in the plate tracery and the spire. The aisles are divided into four bays externally by low buttresses and each bay has two trefoiled lancet windows except for one on the north (second from the east) which has three. The west bay of the south aisle has the main entrance to the church, protected by a porch, and the east bay of the north aisle has an arch opening into the original vestry, now a small chapel.
The clerestory above has six bays which do not run in step with the four aisle bays, a source of annoyance to the church's critics, and these consist of two-light windows with plate tracery alternating with foiled windows (of four or five lobes) under semi-circular arches. The windows also have foiled circles in the heads and these, like the bigger foiled windows, are not placed symmetrically. The west front has a doorway under a stone gablet with three receding chamfered orders and then three. shafted lancets above. In the gable is a large circular window containing a quatrefoil and flanked by two odd little constructions like colonettes supporting pinnacles which act as terminations to the moulded hood. The face of this wall is the clearest example on the exterior of the church of Street's relatively restrained use of widely spaced bands of darker pinkish stone to relieve the brownish-buff wall surfaces.
The transepts have differing fenestration, which probably reflects their originally differing purposes. The south transept, which was originally a choir vestry, has a doorway under a gablet in the middle of the south wall and four lancets above, whose sills step up round the gablet. Above them a large circular window with eight subsidiary circlets round a central circle provides light for the crossing. The north transept, which houses the sacristy in the lower part, originally formed the organ chamber, and now has two rectangular lights in the east wall and two tall and two short trefoil-headed lancets with an almond-shaped quatrefoil above in the north wall. The vestry adjoining to the west has three lights surmounted by a sexfoil in the north gable.
The apse added to the east of the south transept by Sir Charles Nicholson is externally less in keeping with the church than it appears to be internally. The exterior has a parapet which conceals the roof, and there are lancets in each of the narrow faces. The stone is well matched with the rest of the facing of the building.
The tower continues the structural honesty of the nave, with a west wall which is in line with the west transept walls and which is linked to them by buttresses to emphasise the point. The walls of the nave clerestory, moreover, bend inwards to abut the west face and thus to act as buttresses. The east wall has a buttress like that of the west wall on the north side, and on the south side is the spiral staircase in an octagonal turret with a spire-like roof. The stage of the tower immediately above the stone vault within is provided with two lancets in the north and south walls and the belfry stage has two large lancets in each direction with three receding orders of stonework and three large louvres in each. A later skeletal clock face is fixed to the stonework between each pair of lights and interferes somewhat with the lines of the architecture. There is a band of darker stone just above sill-level and another at the springing of the arches.
The broach spire is rather short, clearly influenced by French examples, particularly in the lucarnes which have small colonettes and trefoiled arches and stand so proud of the spire that they have pyramidal rather than gabletted roofs. There is a band of darker stone at the level of their bases, two narrower bands at the level of their capitals and then two more bands higher on the spire, above which there are some bands of scale pattern carved on the stonework and several tiers of pierced roundels. Since tower and spire are broader from nath to south than they are from east to west, they naturally look more substantial when viewed along the axis of the church, and critics objected to the setting of a spire on a rectangular base.
The apse is of virtually the same width as the tower and has a continuous semi-circular terminationdivided into five bays by buttresses of which the three curved easternmost have three-light windows with plate tracery of a quatrefoil above three trefoil-headed lancets. The apex of the roof is capped by an iron cross.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
1863
The east window depicts scenes from the life of Christ from The Last Supper through The Crucifixion to The Deposition, nine in all; it is by Clayton and Bell and has the scenes in panels against clear grounds, with Christ in Glory above.
Stained Glass
1874
Apse north-east window: this depicts scenes from the Life of Christ from The Annunciation through The Nativity to The Presentation in the Temple; again nine scenes in all against clear grounds, with an angel above; by Clayton and Bell.
Stained Glass
c.1870
The apse south-east window has scenes from the Life of Christ from The Resurrection through The Ascension to Pentecost, with an angel above; also by Clayton and Bell.
Stained Glass
The clerestory windows are in two sequences; the circular windows have eight saints connected with the history of the Church of England; south (east to west) : St. Joseph of Arimathaea, St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Chad; north (east to west) : St. George, St. Edward the Confessor and St. Birinus; all by Burlison and Grylls
Stained Glass
1896-1914
The clerestory two-light windows show The Twelve Apostles and in the tracery lights above are angels with scrolls (except in the first): south (east to west): St. Peter and St. Andrew with The Annunciation above (a large pot of lilies with small figures of Gabriei and Mary in foils of the circle), St. James and St. John, St. Matthew and St. Thomas . North (east to west): St. Barnabas and St. Paul, St. Bartholomew and St. Matthew, St. Simon and St. Jude. All are by Burlison and Grylls.
Stained Glass
1862-70
The aisle windows are a sequence forming The Stations of the Cross beginning at the north-west and moving clockwise round the church: all are by Clayton and Bell.
Stained Glass
c.1863
The west window of the south aisle depicts Christ and The Children, by Clayton and Bell.
Stained Glass
c.1865
The two roundels above the west aisle windows depict St. Philip and St. James, by Clayton and Bell.
Stained Glass
The west windows are three lancets with stained glass by C.E. Kempe (now hidden by the organ): they depict The Welcoming of the Just to Their Last Reward; the centre light shows Christ and St. Michael, the left The Blessed Virgin Mary and two Sisters of Bethany and the right St. John the Baptist and St. Philip and St. James.
Stained Glass
The west rose window has stained glass depicting The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove adored by brilliant red cherubim.
Stained Glass
1905
The north Advent Chapel has three small ovals of glass in a Flemish style, possibly by F.C. Eden, depicting The Last Supper (after Leonardo da Vinci), The Ascension and Christ Greeting a Disciple by Galilee.
Stained Glass
1912
The south transept has a large circular window surrounded by eight smaller circles depicting The Mystic Adoration of the Lamb after the painting by Van Eyck, by Burlison and Grylls.
Stained Glass
1884
The four lancets in the Lady Chapel apse have glass by Burlison and Grylls adapted for these windows but formerly in the three lancets which the apse replaced. They depict The Virgin and Child flanked by St. John the Baptist and St. Elizabeth, the fourth window having four shields with the emblems of the Passion.
Stained Glass
1886-90
The four lancets below the south transept roundels depict The Four Archangels, by Burlison and Grylls.
Interior
Interior Description
The broad arches of the arcades are simply chamfered and carried on short single pillars of polished pink Peterhead granite with capitals carved by Earp with various stiff-leaf designs, one on the south side with angels playing musical instruments given by the choir, and that by the pulpit incorporating the signs of the evangelists. The windows of the aisles have detached shafts against the respond between the two lights. The floor is paved with red, black and buff tiles in the alleys and the pews stand on timber platforms.
The clerestory, as has already been noticed, runs out of step with the bays of the arcade below it. The windows are linked by bands of carved foliage finished long after the completion of the building. In 1904 Mr. Felton offered to do the work, and the bands of foliage with some human heads intermixed (including portraits of Wilberforce, Street and others), were completed. The circular panels above and between the windows were not all carved, although a scheme was drawn up for the iconography. Even those which were carved are very indistinct.
The roof is one of the best features of the church. It is a simple timber vault with pine boarding spanned at each bay by a tie beam carrying a turned kingpost and with moulded braces. Each bay has a painted panel in the centre with a sacred monogram. Street hoped to have tha aisle roofs painted as well, but there was not enough money, and this has never been done. The aisles are spanned at each bay by half arches of stone and the walls have been whitewashed.
The nave is simply furnished. The font stands by the south door on a raised plinth porch with good patterned Minton tiles, and near it an inscription on the west respond of the south aisle records the date of consecration of the church and that all the seats would be free for ever. The present pews came from All Saints, Oxford, and are probably by T.G. Jackson. The pulpit stands in the north-east corner of the nave and the lectern is set against the stone screen opposite it.
An arch at the east end of the north aisle opens into the Advent Chapel lying on the west of the north transept. This was originally the vestry but was furnished as a chapel in 1905 (the altar was originally under the north window), and the names of departed worshippers are inscribed on panels on the walls. The arch at the east end of the north aisle is now blocked by the War Memorial designed by Nicholson. Street's original drawings show organ pipes here but the organ was eventually raised on a gallery at a higher level in the transept, with a sacristy below.
The crossing and apse are provided with groined vaults, the former rectangular on plan with a circular central bellway and moulded ribs. The apse vault is carried on polished red Devonshire marble shafts and the ribs meet at a boss carved with the Agnus Dei. The crossing, which housed the choir originally, is divided from the nave by a low stone wall surmounted by an iron screen in addition to the later rood beam at the level of the springing of the western arch. The windows in the apse have shafts of polished black marble, and were originally to have been of two lights. Morrell's suggestion that they should be triplets is certainly an improvement. The black and white Belgian marble floor was laid by F.C. Eden in 1898-9 and the levels were altered. The sanctuary floor was raised (the original floor level and Minton tiles can be seen behind the reredos). The chancel woodwork is by Street, but is not of special interest. The reredos, which was originally by him, was altered later with his consent. The glass is by Clayton and Bell, and the sedilia on the south side, with three trefoil-headed recesses with red marble shafts under triangular hoods with naturalistic leaves for the capitals and finials, were carved by Earp. The aumbry on the north (which also has a quatrefoil drain) was provided in 1910 with a shelf and grille to form a tabernacle. There is a dado about nine feet high of green, red, brown and buff tiles all round the apse with a stone cross inset behind the reredos.
The south transept now forms a chapel, with a sanctuary in the apse added by Nicholson. Nicholson was clearly sympathetic to Street's work and provided a substantial stone ribbed vault based on the vault in the sanctuary, but with stone shafts rather than Devonshire marble. The boss is carved with IHS. Two niches on the south side form the credence and piscina. The stained glass was re-used from the triplet of lancets which had originally been in this wall. The walls are faced with ashlar masonry, and Nicholson also divided the transept from the south aisle by inserting two smaller arches in the original broad arch. On the westward face the trumeau has convincing thirteenth-century scrolling foliage, but the little niche with a statue of Our Lady gives away its later date by the rectangular fleurons, a Perpendicular motif which Street would have abhorred. The floor of the apse is paved with black and white marble.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
1904
The high altar is a plain construction of oak.
Altar
1955
The altar in the Lady Chapel is by Laurence King, and has sacred monograms carved in panels on the front.
Reredos
The reredos to the high altar was originally designed by Street (drawing sent on 24 February 1862) and consisted of a broad gothic arch with smaller ones at the sides, all enclosing sculptured figures. Street designed a Crucifixion for the central panel but Morrell thought that it would raise a storm and Street substituted The Agony in the Garden, offering also £25 towards the total cost of £55. The group was carved by Earp and was on view in the 1862 Exhibition. The small figures of SS. Philip and James at the sides were added. and the reredos was complete.
Reredos
1955
The reredos in the Lady Chapel is by Laurence King and depicts the Virgin and Child adored by Shepherds and Wise Men.
Pulpit
The pulpit was given by Morrell in memory of his mother, and is a large structure, the shape of a quatrefoil on plan. It stands on a square base surrounded by four short colonettes with greatly exaggerated moulded bases and capitals. The sides have open arcading with polished marble colonettes and there is a frieze of quatrefoils round the base and a moulded cornice of alabaster round the top of the body; by Street.
Lectern
1862
The lectern is of brass with inlaid mastic decoration, partly restored, and iron feet. It was made by Leaver of Maidenhead to Street's design in 1862.
Font (object)
1862
The font is raised on steps, with a bowl decorated with trefoiled arches set on four colonettes fused to form a base; they have vertical strips of dogtooth between. Street produced his design on 22 February 1862 and the font was carved by Castle.
Bells
Churchyard
Grid reference: SP 508 75
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.
It is unknown whether 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.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
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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