Description

BUCKNELL BAINTON ROAD
SP52NE (South side)
4/14 Church of St. Peter
07/12/66
GV I

Church. C11/C12, C13 and C15, restored 1893 by A. Mardon Mowbray; Limestone
rubble with marlstone- and limestone-ashlar dressings; concrete plain-tile and
lead roofs. Nave, central tower, chancel, south porch and transeptal vestry. C13
chancel has a triplet of lancets to east, each with a roll-moulded arch and
detached shafts with linked waterleaf capitals; the side walls each have 3 plain
lancets lane to north restored) plus a low-side window, and there is a priest's
door to south and a small mutilated piscina in the north wall. The lower stages
of the tower are Romanesque: a plain round-headed ground-floor window survives
on the north, and the smaller window above it has a chevron-decorated arched
head matching a window in the projecting north-west stair turret; the original
top stage has four large openings, 3 of which retain 2 shafted inner arches, the
central mullion of the northern opening having profuse chevron oration. The
rounded upper stages of the stair turret must be an early addition, but the
battlemented top stage of the tower is probably C14 and has 2-light traceried
openings. The vestry to south of the tower is C19. The C13 nave retains 2 plain
lancets on the north plus a fine moulded doorway with stiff leaf capitals on
detached shafts; to south are 2 similar lancets, and a very elaborate doorway
with pairs of detached shafts flanking an engaged shaft, and with mutilated
undercut ornament on the arch. The large western lancet has engaged shafts with
fine stiff-leaf capitals. The nave also has 2-light C14 low-side windows at its
eastern end, and an added C15 clerestory. The porch is medieval but has a
restored archway. Interior: The east window has fine shafted rere arches, and
there is a trefoil-headed piscina or niche halfway down the north wall of the
chancel. The eastern arch of the tower, of 2 chamfered orders, is probably C14,
but the plain round-headed western arch remains. Blind Romanesque arches, with
simple abaci, in the north and south walls of the tower are echoed by similar
chamfered arches over the low-side windows of the nave. The sills of these
windows have quatrefoil bowl piscinas. A C13 string course, running around the
walls of the chancel and nave linking the sills, rises over the doorways and the
blind arches in the nave. There is a trefoil-headed holy-water stoup, and the
fine hinges, now on the inside of the south door, are probably also C13 or
earlier. The roofs of the nave and chancel are probably both C19. The plastered
walls have traces of medieval colour but the lined decoration in the nave is
probably C19. The low-side windows in the nave have C19 stained glass, and the
St. George in the west window by A.K. Nicholson is of c.1918. Fittings include a
Jacobean pulpit with arched panels and 6 baluster legs. Monuments include some
early-C17 brass-inscriptions, and 4 elaborate late-C17 and C18 marble wall
tablets to members of the Trotman family; further members are commemorated by
contemporary black marble ledgers in the nave floor. The church is one of the
best examples of C13 work in the county, and has the largest number of low-side
windows of any church in England.
(VCH; Oxfordshire, Vol VI, pp78-9; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp500-501)

Listing NGR: SP5608325599

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17528147

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)