St Mary the Virgin, Witney
St Mary the Virgin, Witney
St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I cruciform parish church on Church Green, Witney, Oxfordshire, in the Diocese of Oxford, with a crossing tower that dominates the town’s green.
- Location
- Witney, Oxfordshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Oxfordshire
- City / town
- Witney
- Address
- Church Green, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 4AW
- Postcode
- OX28 4AW
- Built
- 12th century; rebuilt mid-13th century; restored 1865–69
- Architect
- G. E. Street (1865–69 restoration)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary
- Diocese
- Oxford
- Parish
- Witney
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Early English cruciform with Decorated and Perpendicular additions
- Materials
- Coursed and uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; gabled stone-slate roofs
- Grid reference
- SP 356 092
- Opening hours
- The church is normally open during the day until about 4pm.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England records a twelfth-century church rebuilt in the mid-thirteenth century, with early-fourteenth-century chapels added to the north transept and the west end of the north aisle, a fifteenth-century enlargement of the south transept, and restoration in 1865–69 by G. E. Street. The fabric is coursed and uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and gabled stone-slate roofs. The plan is cruciform, with a tower over the crossing and aisled nave and transepts. The mid-thirteenth-century east window is of graduated triple lancets; the north transept has a fine seven-light curvilinear north window and early-fourteenth-century corner buttresses with statue niches.
Street also designed the piscina, sedilia, pulpit, lectern, pews and font. Interior features include thirteenth-century four-bay nave arcades, a restored fifteenth-century nave roof, an early-fifteenth-century screen to the north chapel, and fourteenth-century effigies of a man and woman in the north transept. The church is normally open during the day until about 4pm.