---
title: "St Mary the Virgin, Bampton"
description: "Located in Bampton, Oxfordshire. Built C10/C11 origins; rebuilt C12; remodelled late C13–early C14; restored 1868–70. Diocese of Oxford. Grade I. Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Gothic, with Gothic Revival restoration style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Oxfordshire","Bampton","Grade I","Norman","Ewan Christian"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-mary-virgin-bampton"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T01:14:40.783Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-08T15:59:46.197Z"
location: "Bampton, Oxfordshire"
country: "England"
county: "Oxfordshire"
town: "Bampton"
address: "Church View, Bampton, Oxfordshire, OX18 2LW"
postcode: "OX18 2LW"
built: "C10/C11 origins; rebuilt C12; remodelled late C13–early C14; restored 1868–70"
architect: "Ewan Christian (1868–70 restoration)"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["Mary"]
diocese: "Oxford"
grade: "I"
style: "Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Gothic, with Gothic Revival restoration"
materials: "Limestone rubble; stone slate roofs to nave and chancel; lead roofs to the remainder"
website: "https://bamptonwithclanfield.org/st-marys-bampton/"
openingHours: "The church is open daily during daylight hours and at other times by arrangement."
parish: "Bampton with Clanfield"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1053559"
accessNotes: "Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas"
---

# St Mary the Virgin, Bampton

St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I cruciform parish church on Church View, Bampton, Oxfordshire, in the Diocese of Oxford, a former minster church at the centre of what was long the county’s largest parish.

## Overview

Historic England records tenth- or eleventh-century origins in herringbone stonework in the tower and stair turret; a twelfth-century rebuild on a cruciform plan, with Norman work surviving in the tower and transepts; late thirteenth- to early fourteenth-century aisles; fifteenth-century raising of the transepts; the Horde chapel remodelled in 1702; and an extensive restoration of 1868–70 by Ewan Christian, dated on the rainwater heads. Materials are limestone rubble, with stone slate roofs to nave and chancel and lead elsewhere. The west front has a restored early fourteenth-century five-light window and a moulded doorway with ballflower and fleuron ornament, behind a shallow contemporary porch.

The south transept retains a fine twelfth-century doorway with a chevron-moulded arch on carved capitals. Four-bay late thirteenth-century aisles have trefoil-headed lights in threes. The listing and parish accounts place the church on a late Anglo-Saxon minster site; William I granted the church to Leofric, Bishop of Exeter, in 1069. The building remains the parish church of Bampton with Clanfield and is open daily in daylight hours.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1053559](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1053559)
- [St Mary’s, Bampton](https://bamptonwithclanfield.org/st-marys-bampton/)