ST MARY, WOOTTON
CHURCH OF ST MARY, WOOTTON
Like many English country churches, there is no record of the earliest days of the Church of St Mary. What we do know is that the building and its contents have been regularly altered and modified according to the fashions and needs of the time. When looking around the church, there are many clues. The earliest parts of the present building, the porch, doorway, nave and lower tower are in the Early English style of architecture, used between 1189 and 1272. The Early English piers and arches were probably constructed when a narrow north aisle was built on to the nave. The chancel, being in the Decorated style of architecture, must have been constructed later, some time between 1272 and 1377. The north aisle was rebuilt in this style, in the fourteenth century. The upper parts of the tower, the internal tower arch, the clerestory and roof were constructed in the Perpendicular style, between 1377 and 1546. Replacing benches, the box pews were built around 1855, in a surprisingly old-fashioned design for the time.
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The chancel was extensively restored and remodelled at the end of the nineteenth century, with the window by C.E. Kempe and the striking reredos being installed at this time. Rush lights and candles were superseded in 1890 by pendant oil lamps. The suspension chains were retained in 1944 to support the new chandeliers (still in place) when electric lighting was installed. Prior to the installation of the present organ by Peter Conacher of West Huddersfield in 1876, (originally placed where the side altar is now), a band of musicians played in the West Gallery, evidence of which can still be seen in front of the vestry screen. The old vestry, now demolished, was accessed through what is now a blocked door in the north wall of the chancel. In 1911 the organ was enlarged and moved by George Jackson of Oxford to its present position, blocking the ancient north door, and the present vestry was created. The instrument as it stands today has undergone some changes in 1980 by Foster-Waite, but the organ still retains its nineteenth century character. For further information, please see the Music page.
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The earliest parish registers date from 1564, and all our records are stored in the Oxfordshire County Archives. The nineteenth century writer Robert Francis Kilvert was married in Wootton church to Elizabeth Anne Rowland of Hollybank, Wootton. Sadly, he died very soon afterward of peritonitis. The Kilvert Society has installed a commemorative plaque at the back of the church. The poignant memorials in the side chapel and at the front of the nave tell the story of the loss of parishioners in both World Wars. In the belfry, five of the six bells date from the eighteenth century, and one more was added in 1923.
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The church is open to visitors during daylight hours.