CHURCHES.
A 'free chapel' in the patronage
of the Belet family and endowed with tithes
from their lands existed by 1224, when Exeter
cathedral unsuccessfully challenged the arrangement. (fn. 87) Before 1303 the chapel acquired some
glebe, said to be 15 a. in 1399. (fn. 88) The advowson
passed in the 14th century to a succession of
owners, including members of the Talbot and
Laundels families and, in 1399, Thomas Dyer,
a vicar of Bampton, who as patron was to offer
1 lb. of wax before the image of the Blessed
Virgin at Lew on the feast of the Assumption. (fn. 89)
No appointments are known, though Robert of
Cokethorpe, chaplain, involved in the suit of
1224, (fn. 90) perhaps served the chapel. In 1549,
following suppression of chantries, the chapel
was sold as the chantry- or free chapel of Lew
'founded' by Thomas Dyer, with 7 a. of openfield arable and corn tithes from 7 yardlands
and 7 a., together yielding 6s. 8d. a year; in 1575
it was bought by London speculators as a 'cottage
or tenement' formerly given for maintenance
of a light. (fn. 91) Chapel orchard, adjoining Witney
road, was mentioned in the later 18th century, (fn. 92) but the chapel's location is otherwise
unknown.
The later church, built by subscription in 1841
on land donated by Jonathan Arnatt, was consecrated in 1842 as a chapel of ease with its own
burial ground. In 1857 it became, under Order
in Council of 1845, the parish church for Bampton Lew, conterminous with Lew township, and
the advowson was vested in the dean and chapter
of Exeter; (fn. 93) the church was licensed for marriages c. 1858. The benefice was united by Order
in Council of 1917 with Bampton Proper, from
1976 part of the united benefice of Bampton with
Clanfield. (fn. 94) The endowment comprised c. 216 a.
formerly attached to Bampton's east vicarage,
tithe rents in Clanfield worth c. £90 a year, and
the south vicarage house in Bampton; (fn. 95) net
income fell from c. £300 in 1866 to £200 in 1917,
and both the small endowment and the house's
distance from the church were repeatedly cited
by vicars as their chief impediments, making it
difficult to find incumbents. (fn. 96) After 1917 the
vicarage house was sold, and vicars of the joint
benefice lived in the house at Bampton formerly
assigned to Bampton Proper. (fn. 97)
Until 1857 the church was served from Bampton, and in 1854 the number of communicants
was 'small'. (fn. 98) Thereafter all Bampton Lew's
vicars resided and seem to have been active in
parish life, serving the cure alone. Henry Joy
(1869-80) and Joseph Jackson (1887-1917)
raised funds for church repairs and for new
schools, difficult in a parish with few inhabitants
and resident landowners, and in 1894 Jackson
intervened on behalf of parishioners seeking a
rent reduction. There were two Sunday services
and a monthly sacrament. Average attendance in
1869 was 75-100, with about a dozen habitual
absentees who were thought in 1872 to be
dissenters; communicants numbered usually between 10 and 15, and children were catechized
or otherwise instructed regularly. (fn. 99)
The small, stone-built church of HOLY
TRINITY, (fn. 1) designed by William Wilkinson (fn. 2) in
13th-century style, comprises chancel, nave with
south porch and north vestry, and, over the
porch, an octagonal turret apparently modelled
on that of Cogges church. In 1851 there were
100 free and 60 other sittings. (fn. 3) Subsidence necessitated underpinning and buttressing in the
1870s and in 1896, and in 1920-1 a restoration
by N. W. Harrison included underpinning, reroofing, and redraining. The pews were then
rebuilt without their doors, and the pulpit was
lowered. In 1963 the bell turret was reroofed
with copper. (fn. 4) Stained glass includes a window
to the memory of F. E. Lott, vicar 1857-69; the
bell, by Thomas Mears of London, is dated
1841, and the plate includes a silver chalice, a
pair of patens, and a flagon, given in 1841 by
Thomas Denton. (fn. 5) A lych-gate was added in
1892. (fn. 6)