PARISH CHURCH AND CHURCH LIFE
Origins and Status
Though the existence of a church within the 10th- and
11th-century estate seems likely, the earliest unequivocal
evidence is the survival of blocked, single-splayed
windows of late 11th- or early 12th-century type high up
in the nave of the existing building. Possibly that work
was broadly contemporary with the first phases of the
stone-built manor house to the east, and almost
certainly it long predated the borough's foundation. (fn. 1)
The ecclesiastical parish, conterminous with the late
Anglo-Saxon estate, was large for Oxfordshire, covering
7,182 a. and including, besides the medieval borough,
the townships of Crawley, Curbridge, and Hailey. There
is, however, no evidence of a minster at Witney, and
before the estate was assembled in possibly the mid 10th
century the area may have been divided between
different late Anglo-Saxon parochiae, with territories
north of the river Windrush dependent on a probable
minster at Minster Lovell, and those south of the river
dependent possibly on Bampton. (fn. 2) The church was dedicated to St Mary the Virgin by 1485 and possibly by the
1270s, when some borough rents belonged to the mass
of the Blessed Virgin. (fn. 3)
Suggestions by 19th-century antiquaries that there
was an earlier church on Corn Street are unsubstantiated, (fn. 4) and an isolated medieval reference to a church at
Curbridge was probably an error, arising possibly from
the parish church's location just outside the borough
boundary within Curbridge township. (fn. 5) Chapels of ease
were built at Hailey in 1761, at Curbridge and at Crawley
in 1836 and 1837, and at Woodgreen in 1849, but the
parish remained undivided until 1854 when Hailey and
Crawley became a separate ecclesiastical parish; they
were reunited with Witney in 1982. (fn. 6)
The living, a rectory, was among the wealthiest in the
bishop of Winchester's gift, attracting influential
non-residents whose prolonged absences led by the mid
13th century to ordination of a vicarage. (fn. 7) Rectors
appointed vicars until 1633 when the two livings were
consolidated, (fn. 8) and apart from in the 1660s when a vicar
was briefly reinstated (fn. 9) later incumbents were styled both
rector and vicar, the only such in the archdeaconry. A
team ministry was established in 1982 after Hailey and
Crawley were reunited with the parish, the rector being
supported by a team vicar with responsibility for Hailey
and Woodgreen. In 1988 the latter was redesignated
vicar of East Witney, and a second team vicar was placed
in charge of West Witney; reorganisation in 1993
combined responsibility for new housing estates in west
Witney with that for Hailey and Crawley. (fn. 10)
Advowson
Witney church was first recorded in 1162, when Henry
of Blois, bishop of Winchester, granted it to the hospital
of St Cross in Winchester. (fn. 11) St Cross's ownership was
confirmed in 1189, but by 1211 it belonged to Hugh of
Gayhurst, chancellor of the diocese of Salisbury, (fn. 12) St
Cross having perhaps lost it during a long and confused
dispute between the Knights Hospitallers and the bishop
of Winchester. (fn. 13) Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester
and confidant of King John, regained the church probably around 1212 when the bishopric of Salisbury was
taken into the king's hands, and he and his successors
exercised the patronage thereafter. (fn. 14) Crown presentations in 1243, 1261, 1317, 1366, and 1632 were made
during vacancies of the see; (fn. 15) in 1310 a clerk to the count
of Savoy was presented by papal provision at the request
of the count and of Bishop Woodlock, (fn. 16) and in 1447
William Waynflete, shortly before his appointment to
the bishopric, presented by grant of the Crown, as
presumably did the dean of Winchester in 1555–6. (fn. 17) The
Parliamentary Speaker William Lenthall, briefly lord of
the manor during the Interregnum, presented in 1655,
his candidate Ralph Brideoake being re-presented by
Charles II in 1660. (fn. 18) In the 1670s the king contested the
patronage against Bishop Morley, presenting in 1671
and 1675; (fn. 19) some confusion remained in the early 18th
century when it was thought that king and bishop should
present by turns, (fn. 20) but the bishops retained the
patronage until 1869 when, under an agreement of
1852, it was transferred to the bishop of Oxford, whose
successors presented thereafter. (fn. 21)
Endowment and Vicarage
The medieval rectory, valued usually at around £40 a
year and in the late 13th century at 100 marks (£66), was
the wealthiest in Oxfordshire except for the prebend of
Thame. The vicar, by contrast, received only around £4 a
year, and in 1254 as little as 5 marks (£3 6s. 8d.). (fn. 22)
Whether the vicarage then included tithes is not clear: in
the 16th century the rector was said to be entitled to all
tithes except those from Witney park, for which a modus
of 10s. was received, while the vicar's endowment
comprised a house and unspecified lands, (fn. 23) though in
the early 17th century the vicarage was said to include
small tithes worth £36 a year. (fn. 24) By 1526 the rectory was
worth £47 gross, but owed a rent charge of £4 6s. 8d. to
Merton College, Oxford, granted in 1518 in return for
college premises conveyed to Stephen Fox, bishop of
Winchester, for his new college of Corpus Christi. The
vicar's income had been temporarily increased to £18,
attracting an absentee incumbent who paid £7 13s. 4d. to
his curate. (fn. 25) In 1535 the rectory was valued at over £52
gross, around £47 net after payment of procurations,
synodals, and the Merton College rent charge, though
the vicar's income had fallen to £9 12s. 4d. (just over £10
gross). (fn. 26)
The tithes, leased for an unspecified amount in the
late 16th and mid 17th century, yielded £500 by the early
18th, (fn. 27) and in 1710 the living was said to be worth £700 in
all. (fn. 28) In 1794 the tithes were valued at nearly £1,000,
though they had fetched only £800 when leased two
years earlier. By then the glebe comprised the rectory
house and 3 a. of grounds worth £50 a year, Vicarage
close (2½ a.) by Church Green, worth £2 10s., and a farm
of 80 a. of arable and 42 a. of meadow in Curbridge,
leased for £76. (fn. 29) The tithes of the whole parish were
commuted in 1841 for a rent charge of £1,745, and at
Curbridge's inclosure in 1845 the rector was awarded
118 a. on Curbridge heath, including some 40 a. of old
inclosed glebe there. (fn. 30) The glebe farm, leased for £80 a
year in the late 19th century, was sold in 1919. The value
of tithe-rent charges declined sharply, but still produced
£1,058 in 1899. (fn. 31)
Rectory House
The medieval rectory house, which stood just north of its
18th-century successor west of the church, seems to
have included a 13th-century two-storeyed chamber
block at its north end, aligned east-west and measuring
61 ft. by 23 ft. A sketch made before its demolition in
1834 showed single lancet windows on the north and
east, and possibly a former hall range running south. (fn. 32) In
the early 17th century the house was 'strongly built with
stone', and contained a large hall and a parlour;
outbuildings included three large barns, a stable, and a
dovecot, presumably in the two 'outyards', and there was
a garden and orchard and a 1-a. walled ground to the
west. (fn. 33)
In 1718 Robert Freind, rector 1711–39, obtained permission to build a new rectory house, which was
completed in 1723, and 'rebuilt' (presumably remodelled or repaired) by Freind's son and successor William
in 1754. (fn. 34) The house (Fig. 50), one of the largest in the
town, is a square two-storeyed ashlar building of
double-depth plan, with a central entrance leading to a
stair hall; it has five bays to each elevation, and a hipped
roof with attics behind a high parapet. Above the front
door are the arms of Jonathan Trelawney (d. 1721),
bishop of Winchester. The interior retains some
panelled rooms, a fine oak staircase with yew inlay, and
an original first-floor chimneypiece on the south-west.
Part of the earlier house was retained on the north, and
in the 1830s included a kitchen abutting the main
house's back stairs; those buildings were replaced by new
services in 1834, re-using some materials and possibly
retaining some walling. (fn. 35) The 19th-century buildings
were demolished in 1936. (fn. 36)
By the 1960s the house required expensive repairs,
and a new house in Station Lane was acquired to serve as
the rectory. The old house remained empty and
semi-derelict until bought in 1969 by the county
council, which repaired and restored it as part of the
adjoining Henry Box Comprehensive School. (fn. 37)
Vicarage House
A vicarage house on the east side of Church Green, in
Vicarage close on the site of the later National school,
was mentioned from the 1480s, (fn. 38) and in 1535 was held
for 6s. 8d. rent to the bishop of Winchester. (fn. 39) Possibly it
was acquired during the later 15th century, since deeds
for adjoining premises imply that before then it was
privately owned: in the 1470s the vicar may have occupied a house further south on the sites of Nos. 21–5,
which he bought privately in 1471 but which was sold in
1485. (fn. 40) Though no longer needed after the late 17th
century, the vicarage house was still so called in 1743
when, its walls 'decayed and bulging', it was taken
down. (fn. 41) The vacant site remained part of the glebe until
given as the site for the school in 1856. (fn. 42)
Pastoral Care and Religious Life
The Middle Ages to the Reformation
50. Witney rectory house in 1825.
Twenty-one out of twenty-five recorded rectors between
c. 1200 and 1500 were graduates, or men about whom
enough is known to assume a higher education. (fn. 43) Many
were already well advanced in preferment when
presented to Witney, and at least ten were linked by
service or kinship to the bishop of Winchester or the
king. The earliest known incumbent, Humphrey de
Millers, who resigned Witney in 1220, was a royal
servant who later became master of St Cross hospital; (fn. 44)
William son of Humphrey, who renounced his claim in
1228, may have been his son, if so an unexpectedly late
instance of an hereditary claim. (fn. 45) A dynasty of a sort was
established by a succession of Savoyards who, profiting
from royal and papal favour, held the rectory from 1243
to 1318: Ralph Grossi (rector 1243–?1258), provost of
Aosta and later archbishop of Tarentaise; Peter de
Chambéry (rector? 1258–61), papal chaplain and canon
of St Martin-le-Grand, London; William Wachi de
Chambéry (rector 1261–1310); and William's nephew,
also William Wachi (1310–16). (fn. 46) Grossi seems to have
visited Witney once or twice, notably for what may have
been a reconsecration ceremony in 1243, (fn. 47) and William
Wachi the elder probably appeared no more often
during the longest incumbency on record. (fn. 48) From 1316
the living was held by well-connected English clerics,
mostly non-resident pluralists. John Orleton (rector
1337–40), brother of Adam, bishop of Winchester, was
succeeded by his nephew John de Trelleck, later bishop
of Hereford, who resigned the living within months. (fn. 49)
The distinguished career of Robert de Wikeford, rector
1359–62, culminated in the archbishopric of Dublin and
chancellorship of Ireland. (fn. 50) His predecessor Roger Foliot
(rector 1340–59) and successor John de Blewbury
(1362–8) may, unusually, have resided at least part of
the time. (fn. 51) Nicholas Wykeham (rector 1378–1414),
nephew of Bishop William Wykeham, was his uncle's
first warden at New College, Oxford, (fn. 52) and Lionel
Woodville (1475–9), brother-in-law of Edward IV,
became chancellor of Oxford university in 1479 and
bishop of Salisbury in 1482. (fn. 53)
Parochial care devolved upon the vicars, about whom
much less is known. Some were local men, among them
William of Witney (appointed in 1262), Richard the
chaplain (fl. 1279), possibly the same as Richard
Lambert who resigned in 1306, and Richard Dormer (fl.
1330s); of those, Lambert belonged to a prominent
family of Witney burgesses. (fn. 54) A priest and three clerks
recorded in 1279 and a chaplain recorded in 1368 may
have been employed at the church, (fn. 55) and endowed
chantry priests, too, may sometimes have assisted. (fn. 56) The
only medieval vicar known to have been a graduate was
Christopher Chaters, a former fellow of Magdalen
College, Oxford, licensed in 1487 to hold the living in
plurality; (fn. 57) thereafter the temporary increase in the
vicar's income attracted several senior Oxford
academics, notably, in the 1520s, John Roper, vicar of
the university church of St Mary the Virgin, and Lady
Margaret professor of divinity. (fn. 58) Roper did not reside, (fn. 59)
though his successors, apparently all recruited from the
university, seem mostly to have done so. (fn. 60)
In 1520 the churchwardens reported that the rector
and vicar were absent, the chancel ruinous, and the
churchyard fouled, (fn. 61) though such neglect, typical of the
early 16th century, did not necessarily characterize the
earlier period. Resident clergy in 1526 comprised a
vicar's curate, a stipendiary assistant paid £5 a year, and
two chantry priests, (fn. 62) and in 1533 a wealthy parishioner
made small bequests to a curate, four assistant priests,
and two clerks. (fn. 63) Presumably it was they or their predecessors who performed the annual 'Popish maumetrie'
of a puppet show dramatizing the Resurrection story,
which until the Reformation attracted large crowds into
Witney. (fn. 64) In 1538 a fellow of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, was investigated for delivering sermons at
Witney extolling 'the old time', and it may be that the
college's house on Church Green was for a time a focus
of religious conservatism. (fn. 65) Certainly there was still a
rood light in the church in 1545, to which a parishioner
left a bequest. (fn. 66) In 1548 the resident clergy may have
comprised only a curate and a chantry priest; the former
needed assistance and the latter, though 'a man of good
behaviour and well-learned', had given up teaching, so
that the town had no schoolmaster. (fn. 67) From the 1570s
vicars regularly attended churchwardens' meetings, and
by then most were probably resident, (fn. 68) all of them
recruited apparently from Oxford university. (fn. 69) Both the
vicar and his curate subscribed to the Elizabethan Settlement in 1559, (fn. 70) and so far as is known their successors
conformed to the orthodoxy of the day. (fn. 71)
Medieval Chantries
The building of several side chapels in the church in the
14th century (fn. 72) and the apparently large number of
medieval altars imply several chantries, though few are
documented. Those that are were established by individual burgesses rather than by guilds, although in 1309
the 'community of the town' sponsored several candidates for ordination, (fn. 73) perhaps for service in an unrecorded chantry or guild chapel. If so, it may have been
dedicated to St John the Baptist, whose symbols formed
the basis of the borough seal and who was frequently
associated with medieval cloth or textile guilds. (fn. 74) A
14th-century crypt and chapel in the north transept
were erected presumably by the unidentified couple
whose effigies survive in the north wall, and the
north-west chapel, later adopted by the Wenmans, was
founded perhaps by the unidentified ecclesiastic
commemorated there; (fn. 75) a chantry priest receiving £10
6s. 8d. a year in the 1520s (fn. 76) may have been associated
with one of those chapels, but evidence is lacking. An
endowment comprising 19s. 1d. rent from 22 houses
and a plot of arable, given before the 1270s to support
the mass of the Blessed Virgin, seems to have been
distinct from a later chantry dedicated to the Virgin, and
no donor is known. (fn. 77)
The only documented 14th-century chantry was
established by Richard of Standlake, one of a leading
Witney family, who in 1331 was licensed to endow a
chapelwarden and two chaplains to celebrate daily mass
for the souls of his ancestors. (fn. 78) The chantry was
presumably established before 1348 when Richard's
property, seized following his conviction for murder,
included a 'priest's house'. (fn. 79) William of Edington,
bishop of Winchester, refounded the chantry in favour
of the king, himself, and their families, and either he or
Richard built a chantry chapel east of the south transept; the chapel was dedicated to the Virgin before
1361, when Edington altered the endowment to
provide for a single chaplain only. (fn. 80) The first chaplain
served for at least forty years, living in a house in Corn
Street formerly owned by the Standlake family. (fn. 81) In
1535 the endowment was valued at £4 6s. 8d., from
which a quitrent of £1 14s. 3d. was payable to the
bishop, though when suppressed in 1548 it was valued
at over £7 clear and was endowed with 8 oz of plate. (fn. 82)
Another chantry, endowed with lands worth £6 13s. 4d.
in the early 16th century, was established probably in
the remodelled south transept aisle by the woolman
Thomas Ricards or Fermor in 1485, and was
suppressed in 1548, when there was no chantry priest
and no plate; a second Fermor chantry, endowed with
13s. 4d. a year, was also vacant at its suppression in
1548. (fn. 83)
The Reformation to the Early 19th Century
The rectory attracted eminent churchmen long after the
Middle Ages. Five bishops received commendams
permitting them to retain the rectory with other preferments: Nicholas Robinson, rector 1564–85, was bishop
of Bangor, (fn. 84) while John Underhill (rector 1585–92), (fn. 85)
Walter Blandford (1665–71), (fn. 86) Nathaniel Crew
(1671–4), (fn. 87) and Henry Compton (1674–5) were all
bishops of Oxford. (fn. 88) Three rectors subsequently became
bishops: Nicholas West (1502–15) bishop of Ely, (fn. 89) Ralph
Brideoake (1655–65) bishop of Chichester, (fn. 90) and Edward
Legge (1795–7) bishop of Oxford. (fn. 91)
Other rectors, slightly less eminent, were assiduous in
collecting preferments. Richard Sydnor, rector 1520–9
and fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, was a royal
chaplain and treasurer to Princess Mary. (fn. 92) John Higdon
(1529–33), protégé of Cardinal Wolsey, was president of
Magdalen College and first dean of Cardinal College,
later Christ Church, (fn. 93) while the distinguished theologian
Thomas Jackson (rector 1632–40) was president of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and a royal chaplain,
besides holding numerous other preferments. (fn. 94) Richard
Duke (1708–11), poet and wit 'turned parson', was a
pluralist on a more modest scale than his successor
Robert Freind (rector 1711–39), a frequenter of the
leading aristocratic and literary circles who acquired
several canonries, a prebend at Westminster, and the
headmastership of Westminster School. Freind's request
that Witney might pass to his son William drew from
Bishop Hoadly the laconic response 'if Dr Freind can ask
it, I can grant it', (fn. 95) and William (rector 1739–66)
succeeded effortlessly to several of his father's positions,
besides adding some of his own. (fn. 96) His successors John
Mulso (1767–71) and Phipps Weston (1771–94) were
in much the same mould, the latter holding with Witney
four prebends, a rectory, and a vicarage. (fn. 97) Witney's busy
and acquisitive rectors did not, however, neglect the
parish entirely. Some resided at least part of the time,
while others, especially if based at Oxford, probably
visited regularly and are known to have displayed an
informed interest in more than the glebe and tithes. (fn. 98)
During the 17th century growing Puritan sympathies
seem to have created tensions in the town. (fn. 99) In the early
17th century Sunday afternoon sermons were regularly
given by fellows of Oxford colleges invited 'to preach a
lecture', their popularity and Puritan theology
prompting conflict with the incumbent: in 1623
Humphrey Aylworth, rector 1614–32, tried to subvert
the noted Puritan divine Edmund Staunton by
prolonging prayers interminably, before ostentatiously
departing with his clerk to pass sarcastic comments at
the church door on those arriving for the sermon. (fn. 100) John
Rowe (d. 1677), lecturer in Witney in the 1650s, made
much of the collapse of an upper floor at the White Hart
Inn in 1653, during performance of a play which, he
claimed, contained blasphemous passages and 'a bitter
taunt against all Godly persons under the name of Puritans', though his assertion that up to 400 people were
present suggests that not all townspeople shared his
views. (fn. 101) The appointment as rector of William Lenthall's
chaplain Ralph Brideoake in 1655 prompted disquiet
among more radical parishioners, since Brideoake had
previously been chaplain to the executed royalist James
Stanley, earl of Derby, and was regarded as a 'cavalier
and a dull preacher' whose sermons were 'little less than
Popery'. (fn. 102) Brideoake nevertheless settled in Witney,
preaching twice on Sundays, catechizing at the rectory
house, and allegedly 'out-vying in labour and vigilancy
any of the godly brethren in those parts'; (fn. 103) he adjusted
equally smoothly to the Restoration, (fn. 104) which saw the end
of the 'Witney lecture' in 1662 when the last lecturer was
ejected. (fn. 105)
From the later 17th century relations with Witney's
increasingly influential Nonconformist congregations
were often tolerant and tactful, exemplified in the 1680s
by the undermining of the bishop's attempts to harass
Quakers in the town. (fn. 106) Robert Freind observed in 1738
that since most Nonconformists paid tithes and
attended church occasionally he was disinclined to
pursue them over other matters. (fn. 107) He and his son
William have been castigated as typifying the lax standards of their age, (fn. 108) yet Robert reckoned to spend five
months a year in Witney, employing a long-serving resident curate at £40 a year to serve Witney only, and
William, though evading episcopal inquiries about residence, clearly spent much time in the parish. (fn. 109) In 1711
Robert set up at his own expense a school for twelve
boys, many of whom were found apprenticeships. In
1738 there were two Sunday services and midweek
prayers; communion was administered seven times a
year, usually to around 100 communicants and to
around 250 at Easter. (fn. 110) William was among the first in the
diocese to introduce monthly communion services,
attended in 1759 by between 30 and 60 people, besides
instigating weekly catechizing for children and, in 1761,
establishing a chapel of ease at Hailey. Like his father, he
employed a long-serving curate, Charles Hoskins, who,
although also serving Cogges, resided at Witney. (fn. 111)
In the later 18th century and earlier 19th the
commendable level of church services was maintained,
whether by the permanently resident John Mulso
(1767–71), or by curates working for absentees such as
Robert Barnard (rector 1797–1834). (fn. 112) There are,
however, indications that the almost constant absenteeism of later rectors was damaging to morale. Barnard,
who 'preached but twice' during an incumbency of 37
years, employed as his curate John Hyde, a man who,
though resident and deeply involved in town life, was
himself a considerable pluralist, being rector of St
Martin's, Oxford, vicar of Hallidon (Northants.), and
perpetual curate of Hailey, where he also farmed. Hyde
was, moreover, the most active magistrate on the local
Bench. (fn. 113)
The 19th and 20th Centuries
Charles Jerram (rector 1834–53), assiduous and
staunchly evangelical, was shocked to find on his arrival
that services displayed a 'sad want of decorum', and that
congregations, stuck at their 18th-century level, were a
quarter the size of those attending Nonconformist
chapels. Jerram reinvigorated church life. A popular
preacher, he introduced weekly lectures, with other
lectures on Fridays preceding monthly communion
services. He moved quickly to restore relations with
Nonconformists, glacial under Hyde, to 'mutual Christian affection'. Home visits, successful campaigns
against intemperance and Sunday trading, the establishment of an infants' school, and the division of the parish
into twenty districts, each with a welfare visitor, were
notable features of his ministry. Cottage prayer meetings
at Curbridge and Crawley led to the building of chapels
there in 1836 and 1837 respectively, and in 1849 the new
chapel of Holy Trinity at Woodgreen was consecrated. (fn. 114)
In 1841 Jerram persuaded a reluctant vestry to approve
urgent repairs to St Mary's church roof by himself
contributing £500 and offering to pay the church rate for
all the parish's poor. (fn. 115)
Jerram feared that his achievements had been
short-lived, Witney people settling back into their
'customary lethargy' after an initial burst of enthusiasm. (fn. 116) In terms of church attendance he was unduly
pessimistic, for at the end of his ministry the combined
congregations at St Mary's and at Holy Trinity (up to
900 in all) at last approached those at the various
Nonconformist chapels. (fn. 117) Attendances would have been
higher but for the excessive number of appropriated
pews and galleries in the church: from the mid 17th
century Witney was plagued by pew disputes and by
illegal selling and renting of seats, (fn. 118) and for those obliged
to sit in unappropriated seats, often in distant parts of
the building in unlit, left-over spaces beneath galleries,
church services could be a dispiriting, even disorderly,
experience. (fn. 119)
Jerram's Witney career left the antipathetic Bishop
Wilberforce torn between admiration at the rector's
enterprise and distaste for his easy relations with
Dissenters, which Wilberforce blamed for the difficulties
of Jerram's successor Richard Sankey (rector 1853–63).
The aloof Sankey did not take to Witney, nor it to him.
Although reputedly an excellent preacher, he was 'very
unpopular', suspected of being a Tractarian by his
parishioners, whom he was given to comparing unfavourably with those in his previous living at Farnham
(Surrey). By 1855 he was 'utterly depressed', a state not
eased by tension between his curates William Mills,
low-church and popular, and William Hamson,
distrusted as too high. (fn. 120)
The rectorship of Francis Cunningham (rector
1864–79) followed a similar pattern to Jerram's: at first
energetic and effective, but finally dispirited by what he
perceived to be irreducible resistance and apathy. (fn. 121) His
most notable achievement was the restoration of St
Mary's church in 1866–7, (fn. 122) a prerequisite for the
vigorous church life which he determined to promote.
His campaign to modify unruly behaviour in the town
began close to home when, after a brief struggle, he
reduced the previously ungovernable choristers and
bellringers to order. He gave the church a higher profile
in town life by taking a lead in welfare and social matters,
reorganizing district visiting and thrift clubs, and
arranging parish outings and festivities; (fn. 123) John Horsley,
the noted social reformer, was his curate from 1870 to
1875. (fn. 124) One by-product was a degree of Nonconformist
resentment, manifested in 1865 when he held open-air
hymn services for the cottage dwellers of Lowell's Yard,
and in 1877 when Church of England and Wesleyan
Bands of Hope set up in opposition. (fn. 125) Nevertheless, relations were usually good. By 1866 Cunningham had
introduced a third Sunday service, and congregations at
the newly restored St Mary's had risen to around 700,
with a further 350 at Woodgreen; attendance was
considered satisfactory 'considering the low ebb at
which church feeling has hitherto stood'. An average of
only 65 communicants was perhaps due to building
work at the parish church. (fn. 126) By 1878 there were daily
services, those on Sundays attracting 400 communicants, a remarkable increase even though Woodgreen
and Curbridge were included in the total, (fn. 127) and presumably indicative of genuine religious revival.
William Foxley Norris (rector 1879–1904), a
Tractarian sympathiser and ritualist who introduced
vestments at communion services, (fn. 128) was not obviously a
man to Witney's taste. Yet many of his achievements,
modelled on Cunningham's, won widespread respect.
The church employed a trained nurse for sick-visiting
into the early 20th century, and ran an employment
register for church members. A Church of England
Working Men's Society and a Workman's Club were set
up in 1888, and Norris was instrumental in enforcing
Sunday closing of public houses in 1889. What gave
greatest satisfaction was the abolition of private pews,
which in 1889 were finally freed from appropriation.
Towards the end of his incumbency Norris noted
without bitterness that, despite his considerable efforts,
Nonconformity remained dominant and apathy widespread. (fn. 129) As late as 1942 the rector R. F. Bale (1942–59)
expressed surprise that whereas in Buckingham, his
previous parish, 'the church took the lead in everything',
Witney was a place 'where Nonconformity was so strong
and where the church counted for so little'. Bale set
about improving 'deplorable' relations with other
denominations, initiating in 1943 a United Christian
Council. (fn. 130) In 1961 the need to provide for a rapidly
expanding population led to the opening of St Luke's
hall-church (serving also as a child clinic and social
centre) on the Windrush Valley housing estate; (fn. 131) St
Luke's was managed by the Church Army from 1963 to
1968, after which disagreements between its management committee and the parish clergy, financial
difficulties, and a declining congregation led to its
closure in 1983. (fn. 132) The closure, and that of St Peter's,
Crawley, in the same year, formed part of a major reorganisation initiated by the new rector, R. E. Meredith,
who was also responsible for the establishment of the
team ministry in the parish. (fn. 133)
Church Architecture
The 12th and 13th Centuries
The large, cruciform church of St Mary the Virgin, (fn. 134) long
admired for its elegant central tower and spire, (fn. 135) is built
mostly of coursed limestone rubble; it includes
clerestoryed transepts with chapels and west aisles, and
an aisled and clerestoryed nave with north-west chapel
and two-storeyed north porch (Fig. 51). (fn. 136) The late 11thor early 12th-century church probably comprised an
aisleless nave and chancel, and blocked single-splay
windows survive high in the nave walls; (fn. 137) evidence for an
early central tower is tenuous, (fn. 138) and it seems more likely
that the thick west wall, now ostensibly 13th-century, is
the remains of an early west tower similar to that excavated at Bampton, perhaps with a gallery. If so, the nave
presumably retains its 12th-century dimensions. (fn. 139) The
four-bay north aisle and porch were added in the late
12th century; the latter has an outer doorway flanked by
jamb-shafts with stiff-leaved capitals, and a roundheaded arch of plain chamfered orders, perhaps partly
rebuilt. (fn. 140) Numerous re-used fragments of 12th-century
masonry, including a piece of chevron moulding and a
beakhead voussoir, were found in the south wall of the
chancel during restoration in 1866, (fn. 141) and a 12th-century
piscina or stoup, now partly covered by the raised floor,
remains in the south doorway of the chancel.
51. St Mary's church, Witney.
Two-bay north and south transepts were added in the
early 13th century, unusually with western aisles. Both
transepts retain 13th-century windows in their east
walls, those in the north transept having moulded rear
arches with detached shafts carried down to form altar
recesses. In 1867 traces of white and of red or brown
colouring were discovered on the splays of the northern
window, overpainted with a baptism of Christ. (fn. 142) Other
13th-century work included the rebuilding of the
chancel, the addition of a south nave aisle, the remodelling of the north arcade in similar style, and the
construction of the tower, whose design is related to that
at St Frideswide's priory, Oxford. The tower has triplets
of lancet windows at the belfry stage, and its stone
broach spire, rising between lofty corner pinnacles, has
on each cardinal face a gabled lucarne of twin cusped
lights and a quatrefoil head; the bell-ringers' chamber is
entered from an internal triforium-like intramural
passage which runs around three sides of the tower, and
is pierced on its inner face by triangular-headed openings. Some of the 13th-century work was carried out
perhaps around 1243, when the Savoyard rector Ralph
Grossi visited for what may have been a reconsecration
ceremony. (fn. 143)
The 14th and 15th Centuries
In the 14th century the church was further extended
with north-west and south-east chapels, and with
single-bay extensions to the transepts and south aisle;
the style and excellence of the work has parallels at
Cogges and Ducklington, where the same masons may
have been employed. The north-west chapel, called the
Resurrection chapel in the early 16th century, (fn. 144) has
two-storeyed canopied niches on the buttresses, a
north-west doorway with ogee head and finial,
curvilinear tracery in the east and west windows, and
ballflower ornament along the cornice; it is separated
from the north aisle by an arcade of two arches and a
15th-century wooden parclose screen which retains
traces of paint. (fn. 145) An ogee-headed tomb recess at the east
end of the chapel's north wall houses the effigy of an
ecclesiastic. The north transept extension provided a
chapel built over a crypt which had an octagonal vault
supported by a central pier; (fn. 146) that chapel, too, has double
image-niches on its buttresses, and a seven-light north
window with flamboyant tracery. Beneath the window
are two square recesses containing the recumbent
effigies of an unknown man and woman beneath elaborate ogee canopies, embellished with delicate tracery
which springs from two half-figure corbels, also male
and female; the whole is decorated with ballflower ornament. Before the 1640s the crypt was removed and the
chapel floor lowered to the same level as that of the transept, leaving the recesses high up in the wall. (fn. 147) There was
presumably internal access to the crypt from the chapel;
external access was by a west doorway, the hood of which
survives. The north transept aisle has a reticulated
three-light window similar to those on the east and west
sides of the chapel, and on the aisle's east wall is an
unusual reredos comprising two tall niches flanking a
shorter rectangular niche; a small niche above contains a
modern statue of St George slaying the dragon, probably
installed during restoration of the aisle in 1956. (fn. 148)
A large blocked arch at the south-east end of the south
transept gave access to the chantry chapel of St Mary the
Virgin, built by Richard of Standlake or Bishop Edington
in the mid 14th century and demolished in 1821. (fn. 149) The
chapel, as long as the chancel but lower and narrower,
was stone-built, with a high-pitched roof and a large east
window, later blocked. Drawings also show what appear
to be 15th-century windows on the south side, a
square-headed window of three lights towards the west,
and a tall, centrally placed, low-level window of three
lights with a traceried head and a transom. (fn. 150)
Fourteenth-century alterations to the chancel seem to
have been limited to the insertion, at its west end, of two
opposed windows of three reticulated lights, and the
addition of a piscina and triple sedilia on the south. (fn. 151) A
14th-century niche with cusped head and vermillion
colouring survives on the north face of the south arcade's
easternmost pier, and the south-west pier of the crossing
has remains of a large, possibly 15th-century niche on its
west face. A stair turret in the angle of the south transept
and chancel may be a 15th-century insertion, since
13th-century stonework at the transept's north-east end
is disturbed, but not the clerestory or 15th-century
string-courses. Further remodelling of the church in the
15th century and early 16th included lower-pitched roofs
throughout, clerestorys for the nave and transepts, new
windows including a large five-light east window, and a
new west window and door. (fn. 152) Work on the roofs may date
from 1497–8 when there was a crane at Witney, (fn. 153) likely, if
used at the church, to have been employed in lifting heavy
roof timbers. The north transept clerestory comprises
four fairly large, plain, two-light windows within rectangular openings, and that in the south transept has ten
small square windows with quatrefoil lights; the nave
clerestory has ten handsome three-light windows with
tracery in their heads. The nave's late 15th-century west
window has moulded mullions and lavish tracery, and the
panelled west doorway incorporates image niches in its
hollow moulding. The nearby west window of the north
aisle has a drip-mould decorated with three angels
bearing shields.
In the north transept the larger 13th-century window
on the east was replaced by one whose three lights are
subdivided beneath a low transom into six small cusped
lights; incorporated below the window is a reredos
uncovered and restored in 1867, comprising three
cusped niches over a band of quatrefoiled panels. Parts
of smashed images found built into the wall nearby (fn. 154)
were subsequently destroyed. The south transept was
also given a large five-light south window with elaborate
tracery and a single transom, and the linked 13th-century windows on the east were cut across by two tall
square-headed shallow recesses, presumably for altars.
Rectangular aumbries of uncertain date survive in the
west wall of the north transept and the east wall of the
south transept. A chamber built over the porch, together
with its gabled parapet, was placed off-centre to accommodate the east wall of the north-west chapel; the
chamber, lit by two square-headed windows flanking a
traceried niche with a small vault in its head, has a
fireplace, and was probably used as a priest's room or
schoolroom.
The south transept aisle, perhaps already associated
with owners of Caswell House in Curbridge, was remodelled about 1485, when the wealthy woolman Thomas
Fermor or Ricards, of Caswell, left £20 towards 'the
building of the aisle of St Mary Magdalen . . . called [the]
Carsewell Ile'. (fn. 155) New windows were inserted, and probably then the alcove which projects westwards from the
aisle to accommodate a tomb was added. The Caswell
estate passed in the early 16th century to Fermor's relatives the Wenmans, (fn. 156) but the aisle continued to be used
by the Fermors, from whom it was later named, and was
presumably associated with Fermor's chantry dissolved
in 1548. (fn. 157) In the 1590s it retained heraldic glass
displaying the Fermor arms, while brasses at its north
end, later lost, commemorated Thomas Fermor and his
wives Alice and Emmot (d. 1501). A brass to Emmot's
daughter-in-law Christian (d. 1501), first wife of
Richard Wenman, depicted a figure in a winding sheet. (fn. 158)
The 16th Century
A new door mentioned in 1514 (fn. 159) has not been identified
and, since in 1520 the chancel was ruinous and its
windows broken, (fn. 160) any work carried out then was
presumably limited. A rood mentioned in 1501, apparently beneath the west side of the tower, was probably
the 'red rood' before which a parishioner asked to be
buried in 1514; (fn. 161) it was apparently still in place in 1545,
when a parishioner left bequests to the rood light and
torch light, (fn. 162) but was presumably removed soon after.
The chantry chapel of St Mary the Virgin, sold to the
London grocer William Box in 1548 after the chantry's
dissolution, (fn. 163) was later converted to domestic use,
acquiring chimneys against its east and north walls,
domestic-style windows, and a battlemented wall
linking its east end with the chancel to create a courtyard
(Fig. 52). (fn. 164) By the late 18th century it was occupied by
the sexton, until, in the early 19th century, the rector
evicted him and demolished the chapel. (fn. 165)
The north-west or Resurrection chapel was appropriated by the Wenman family apparently in the early 16th
century: a brass to William Wenman (d. 1521) survived
there until the 1830s, and both Richard Wenman (d.
1534) and his widow Anne (d. c. 1538) requested burial
there. (fn. 166) Two large three-light windows with square heads
under decorative hoods were inserted into the north wall
around that time (Fig. 52), perhaps as part of a general
refurbishment. The chapel continued as a private
mortuary chapel throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, becoming known as the Wenman aisle; (fn. 167) a Wenman
tomb-chest, moved from the chapel to the south transept aisle in 1867 and to the nave's north aisle in 1987, (fn. 168)
has brasses to Richard (d. 1534), his wives Christian (d.
1501) and Anne (d. c. 1538), and their children, (fn. 169) while
later family memorials included the large black marble
tomb, surrounded by a low iron and gilt railing, of Sir
Francis Wenman (d. 1640), said to have 're-edified' the
chapel in the late 1630s. Family banners and armour in
the chapel survived Civil War mutilation but were
removed by workmen around 1840, together with most
of the brasses. (fn. 170)
The 17th and 18th Centuries
Repairs were carried out around 1609, when timber
partly for the spire was stored in the church, and lime in
the Resurrection or Wenman chapel. (fn. 171) A storm in 1636
blew the top of the spire into the church; the churchwardens specified that it should be rebuilt 'in a substantial
height and near its former proportion', and withheld
payment from the mason, Humphrey Smith of
Abingdon (then Berks.), because it was 'not raised to its
former altitude'. (fn. 172) About 1700 the church was re-pewed,
the old seats being condemned as 'very small'. (fn. 173)
Numerous galleries erected in the late 17th and early
18th century included a singers' gallery across the nave's
north arcade and, in 1735, a west gallery, extended in
1794 to take an organ and doubled in size in 1830
perhaps to accommodate the choir. (fn. 174) In 1797 the north
and south aisles were pewed, and the pulpit and reading
desk were moved from the north side of the nave to the
north-east corner of the crossing, causing removal of a
ringing loft installed in 1699. A gallery on the south side
of the nave was also demolished, (fn. 175) and perhaps then a
new bellringers' chamber was created at the level of the
intramural passage just below the belfry. In 1778 the
surgeon James Leverett (d. 1785) gave a large brass
chandelier which was hung in the nave, (fn. 176) and in 1794 the
church acquired, apparently from the Portuguese
embassy in London, a Schnetzler organ and a wooden
reredos 'in Italian taste', purportedly the work of
Grinling Gibbons. (fn. 177) A family vault was constructed in the
chancel in 1752 for the rector William Freind, but was
closed during restoration work in 1866. (fn. 178)
52. St Mary's church in 1802, showing Wenman chapel (right), south-east chantry chapel (left), and wall closing sexton's yard.
The 19th Century
During the 19th century the church interior was transformed by piecemeal alterations and repairs, culminating in a radical restoration in the 1860s. The former
south-east chantry chapel, used without the rector's
consent as a sexton's house, was demolished in 1821,
having allegedly become 'a nuisance and disgrace by the
practices carried out there'; by then it was already
ruinous and 'filled with lumber and filth', the sexton
having been evicted by the rector Robert Barnard
following legal proceedings. (fn. 179) The north-west chapel or
Wenman aisle, its roof near to collapse and its walls
covered in slime, was repaired and converted into an
infants' school about 1840 by the rector Charles Jerram,
the Wenman family having denied responsibility; in the
process workmen pilfered many of the monuments and
brasses. (fn. 180) Restoration of the nave roof in 1841, following
over-optimistic advice from the Oxford Society for
Promoting the Study of Gothic Architecture, cost
£3,000, (fn. 181) and a parapet was added to the chancel roof at
the same time. (fn. 182)
In 1864 the new rector Francis Cunningham decided
to 'gut the church from end to end', in stages lest the
expense frighten his 'fickle and indifferent' parishioners; (fn. 183) the church, though in good repair externally, was
in 'so scandalous a condition' within that the bishop
refused to hold confirmations there. (fn. 184) The works, under
the supervision of G. E. Street, were carried out in 1866–7
by Alfred Groves of Milton-under-Wychwood at a cost of
some £4,500. (fn. 185) The chancel was given a steeply pitched
roof and a new east window of three lights in 13th-century
style, other chancel windows being unblocked; an organ
chamber was added on the south-west, and the chancel
floor was raised by some 4 ft. and tiled; the west gallery was
dismantled and its organ removed to the new chamber;
and pews were cleared from the nave and transepts, where
they had been steeply raked to allow a view of the pulpit,
an arrangement likened by the rector to tiered sheep pens.
The church was refloored and plaster removed, and the
Wenman aisle was converted into a vestry. (fn. 186) New west
doors were said to have been 'faithfully copied' from the
originals. (fn. 187) Removal of the pulpit and reading desk from
within the chancel arch allowed an uninterrupted view of
the altar from the nave, a new pulpit, given by the rector,
being placed against the south-east pier of the tower. (fn. 188) The
old pulpit's inlaid hexagonal sounding board was used to
make a table which remained in the church in 2002. The
font, which stood in the late 18th century towards the
north-west end of the nave and in 1854 near the south
door, was replaced by a new one in Romanesque style,
placed in the centre of the nave towards its west end. (fn. 189)
A new west window, with glass by William Wailes of
Newcastle, was given in 1869 by Rosa Raine of
Woodstock, Woodstock's unrestored church being
considered 'not fit . . . for such a gift'. (fn. 190) An organ by
Walker's of London was installed in the new organ
chamber in 1874, (fn. 191) and between 1880 and 1899 the
church acquired some fifteen new windows by Clayton
and Bell, notably in the chancel and transepts. (fn. 192) An
imposing reredos of 1884, with an array of niches and
statues, is also by Clayton and Bell, and incorporates the
base of a reredos of 1866 by Street; the new work and the
new east window were given by the Batt family, (fn. 193) prominent Witney surgeons. Wrought-iron gates at the north
entrance of the churchyard, designed by Clapton Crabb
Rolfe, were installed in 1894. (fn. 194)
The 20th Century
Repairs to the spire in 1901 included a new weathercock
to replace that blown down the previous year; (fn. 195) the spire
was further repaired in 1925–6, (fn. 196) and in 1928 a
Philadelphia couple gave the medieval-style oak screen
which separates the end bay of the south transept, in
memory of the descendant of a 19th-century Witney
emigrant. (fn. 197) Most north and some south windows were
blown out in 1940 by a bomb which fell on Church
Green, and in 1942 a crashing RAF aircraft removed the
tip of the spire, masonry falling through the chancel
roof. The chancel was reopened in 1943, the spire rebuilt
in 1944, and the windows reglazed in 1948. (fn. 198) In 1956 the
north transept aisle was fitted out as a chapel in memory
of Walter Hewitt, (fn. 199) in 1963 the chancel was reroofed and
the spire gablets were replaced, and the following year
the north aisle and porch and the Wenman aisle were
reroofed. The spire was further repaired in 1966. (fn. 200)
In 1968 the chancel was restored, inaugurating a series
of repairs and alterations. In 1969 the vestry was transferred to the south aisle, the Wenman chapel was
converted into a meeting room, the north transept was
curtained off to make a larger meeting room, and
oil-fired heating was installed. In 1970 the porch was
fitted with an outside door, and in 1971–2 the room over
it was restored. An appeal in 1974 funded repairs to roofs,
retiling of the chancel, and partial reflooring, and the
altar was moved forward to allow the celebrant to face the
congregation. In 1977–8 the badly decayed clerestory
windows and north transept south-east window were
repaired. (fn. 201) Appeal funds raised in 1982 paid for gradual
restoration of roof timbers and, in 1987, the fitting-out of
a parish meeting-room in part of the south transept and
the building of a south porch, the vestry returning to the
Wenman aisle. Clerestory windows on the nave's south
side were renewed in 1989, and in 1990 the nave aisles
were limewashed and new lighting and heating installed.
Work following an appeal in 1992 included renewal of
the nave clerestory's north windows and limewashing of
the nave walls. In 1993 a computerized organ was
installed, pipes from the existing instrument being
preserved as a decorative feature in the south transept.
The same year the artist Andrew Logan, formerly of
Witney, gave a small statue of the Virgin in coloured
mirror-glass, displayed in the south transept. (fn. 202) Responsibility for the churchyard's maintenance was transferred
in 1977 to the town council. (fn. 203)
53. Woodgreen and Holy Trinity church (built 1848–9) in 1905.
Monuments, Bells, Clock, and Plate
The most notable monuments, associated with the
Fermor and Wenman aisles and with the north transept
chapel, are discussed above. (fn. 204) A 'sumptuous' marble
monument in the north transept aisle to Henry Box (d.
1662), founder of the Grammar School, was 'ruthlessly
broken up' in 1867, (fn. 205) leaving only the inscription; other
memorials were removed to the south transept aisle and
to the south aisle of the nave, (fn. 206) where most remained in
2002. Other notable monuments include a brass to
Richard Ashcombe (d. 1606) set in the chancel floor,
and a large marble relief of the Good Samaritan on the
south-west pier of the crossing, commemorating the
surgeon Edward Augustine Batt (d. 1853).
Church bells were recorded from the early 16th
century. (fn. 207) In the 1560s the churchwardens charged 12d.
for ringing the great bell at funerals, and in 1573 they
paid for recasting the great and third bells; since they
faced 'great charges' over 'the rest of the bells' there was
presumably a ring of five or six, and there seems also to
have been a sanctus bell. (fn. 208) The second bell was recast in
1590, (fn. 209) and Richard Keene of Woodstock recast the
fourth in 1660 and, possibly, the sanctus bell in 1669. (fn. 210) In
1732 there was a ring of five, of which three had been
recently cast by Henry Bagley at Witney, and in 1738
there were said to be six bells. (fn. 211) The second and sixth were
recast in 1755 by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester, the third in
1761, and the first and fifth in 1765 by Thomas Rudhall.
By 1815, when Thomas Mears of Whitechapel cast the
tenor, there were eight bells. The second was recast in
1885 by the Bond foundry at Burford, and in 1938 that,
the treble, and third were recast at Loughborough and all
the bells were rehung. (fn. 212)
A church clock was mentioned in 1588. (fn. 213) That, or
more likely a successor, was replaced in 1827–8, and in
1850 the chimes were repaired after a silence of thirty
years. (fn. 214) The clock was replaced in 1875–6, and a new
carillon was given in memory of a Witney grocer. (fn. 215) A
new clock and chimes were installed in 1950 at the
expense of the urban district council, which had taken
over responsibility in 1920. (fn. 216)
In 1571 the church owned a silver communion cup,
and, by 1586, a cover. It acquired two flagons in 1605. The
earliest surviving plate is probably a silver communion
cup and cover given in 1610 by Thomas Webley, clothier,
bearing his initials and mark but now apparently
hall-marked 1767, when it may have been altered. (fn. 217) In
1634 the churchwardens bought a silver-gilt cup whose
cover has since been lost, (fn. 218) and in 1753 the duke of
Marlborough gave a large silver-gilt flagon made in 1744
and a silver almsdish of 1721. The church also retains
three silver-gilt patens of 1728. (fn. 219) The parish registers
begin in 1581, with some gaps during the 17th century. (fn. 220)
Holy Trinity, Woodgreen
The chapel of Holy Trinity was built in 1848–9, on land
given by the bishop of Winchester and the duke of
Marlborough; the cost was met chiefly from subscriptions, and a £500 gift from the rector Charles Jerram.
The architect was Benjamin Ferrey. (fn. 221) The building (Fig.
53), of squared and coursed limestone with ashlar dressings and stone-slated roofs, is in plain 13th-century
style, and comprises an aisleless nave and short chancel;
the east end has a five-light window of gradated lancets,
and the west end a plain gabled bellcot, replacing an
earlier conical bellcot in French style. In 1851 there were
499 sittings. (fn. 222) An organ was acquired in 1860, and new
choir stalls and altar rails were fitted in 1869; (fn. 223) in 1887
the vestry was enlarged to designs by Clapton Crabb
Rolfe, and in 1895 an organ by Charles Martin of Oxford
replaced the earlier one. A new pulpit was fitted in 1909
in memory of Samuel and Mary Shuffrey, memorial
glass was fitted in the east window soon after 1918, and
new choir stalls were fitted in 1968. (fn. 224) In 1899 the plate
comprised a paten, a small electroplate basin, and a
chalice of 1744 marked with the Marlborough crest,
presumably transferred from Witney church at the
chapel's opening. (fn. 225)