Cassington Church Cassington, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Listed Building Description

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

CASSINGTON CHURCH LANE SP4510 (South side) 25/29 Church of St. Peter 12/09/55 GV I Church. Built shortly before 1123 for Geoffrey de Clinton. Altered in early C14 for Lady Mantaate, who added upper stage and broach spire to the tower. Restored 1876/7 by Bodley and Garner. Rendered limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings; stone-coped gabled stone slate roofs. Chancel and nave with central tower. Early C14. Curvilinear 2-light east window; early C12 round-arched window with roll-moulded inner arch and billeted sill to north; C15 three-light cinquefoil-headed window to south, which also has late C19 vestry with Gothic doorway and ogee-headed lights; chancel also has fine corbel table of human and animal heads. 3-stage central tower: early C11 stair-turret and round-headed doorway to north, and C15 three-light window with panel tracery to south; second stage has early C14 pointed-arched cinquefoiled light to south and similar trefoil-headed light with trefoiled head to north; upper stage has early C14 two-light Y-tracery belfry lights, and reset early C12 head corbels reset beneath quatrefoil-panelled parapet; ribbed broach spire has gabled lucarnes. Nave: north side has, from east, an early C14 curvilinear 2-light window, and 2 early C12 round-headed windows with billeted sills; gabled early C14 north porch has hood mould over chamfered doorway with imposts; mutilated early C12 south doorway, with plain tympanum, frames studded C17 door. South side has, from east, an early C14 Curvilinear 2-light window and an early C12 round-arched window with billeted sill; C17 studded door set in early C12 south doorway, which has roll-moulded cushion capitals. Gabled C15 south porch has open timber arcade of trefoiled lights to each side, and arch-braced common-rafter roof. Early C14 three-light Curvilinear west window with flowing tracery. Nave has fine early C12 corbel table, with similar variety of carved heads to those of chancel. Interior: chancel has early C12 quadripartite stone vault, supported on corner shafts with cushion capitals. Early C14 double piscina has reticulated tracery. Early C18 communion rail, with elaborately carved turned balusters; C17 panelled dados in sanctuary. C15 chancel screen has lower plank partition carved with blind tracery, and renewed top and cusped heads. Early C12 tower arches each have zig-zag carved hood over 2 orders of roll moulding set on jamb shafts with cushion capitals. Plain early C12 doorway to tower stairs. Fine Jacobean stalls, much renewed in C19, brought here in 1870s from Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Nave has mid C19 pulpit with traceried panels, on early C12 tub font and 18 ancient benches, porbably C15, with bench ends of chamfered panels with central muntin. Two fine C18 brass chandeliers. Wall paintings: fragments survive on east chancel wall, and of C14 canopied figures at east end of nave; parts of C14 Doom painting over tower arch, and fragments of early C12 painted consecration crosses at west end of nave. Monuments: three C19 wall tablets; floor brass at east end of nave commemorates Roger Cheyne, d.1414, and has simple foliated cross; brass to Thomas Neal, d.1590, depicts shrouded figure; mid C18 Cosier monument on north wall of nave is set in architectural frame; similar monument to south, surmounted by urn and with winged cherub's head, commemorates Francis Seale, d.1720. Stained glass: east window of 1848. In chancel north window is C16 armorial glass and C16 Flemish rounder depicting Story of Joseph. East windows of nave have C14 roundels of head of Christ and 2 deacon saints to south and C16 Flemish glass to north. Late C19 west window has reset C16 to C18 Flemish glass. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp522-3; National Monuments Record; Bodleian Library, Topographical Drawings, for drawings of late C18 onwards including details by R.C. Buckler)

Listing NGR: SP4546810601

Overview

St. Peter's Church in Cassington, Oxfordshire, was founded in the early 12th century. It was long under the jurisdiction of Eynsham Abbey and served by ministers from Christ Church, Oxford. The well-preserved and well-restored church retains its single nave and many original Norman elements.

History

Cassington church was founded c.1120 by Geoffrey de Clinton. It lay within the parish of Eynsham abbey, which retained burial rights (meaning an annual payment to the abbey until the Dissolution) and took half the offerings made on St. Peter's Day.

The church was remodelled in the early 14th century, with an upper stage and spire being added to the tower (1318), new windows inserted in the nave and east wall of the chancel, and the north porch built. The work was financed by Lady Montacute.

During the English Civil War, Cassington was a royalist centre where other royalist clergy took refuge.

From the late 17th century to the mid-19th century, most of the vicars of Cassington were chaplains of Christ Church, Oxford who lived in college, spending at most one or two nights a week in Cassington. In practice many services were taken by curates, by other clergy from the university, or by neighboring incumbents. The curates usually lived in Oxford and were poorly paid.

Thomas Forster, vicar 1824-67, although non-resident, took a considerable interest in the parish. He conducted the first restoration of the church in 1841-2 and played an important part in the establishment of a school in 1852.

Further restorations were undertaken under G.F. Bodley in 1876 and 1901. In 1876, the work included rebuilding the top of the tower, renewing the floor, repairing the chancel walls and roof, renovating the seats, placing canopied 17th-century stalls from Christ Church under the tower, and removing the ceilings in the nave and chancel. In 1901 the nave roof and windows were repaired, the north porch was restored, and a vestry was built on the south side of the chancel.

In 1980 the benefice was united with that of Freeland; in 1985 it was transferred to Eynsham.

Description

Cassington Church is comprised of an aisleless nave, chancel, north and south porches, and a central tower with steeple. A corbel-table of carved heads circles the entire building at the roofline. All these features but the steeple and north porch (both added 1318) survive from the original (c.1120) church.

The south door has an arch with roll-moldings and jamb shafts with cushion capitals. The north door has a plain inset tympanum and plain jambs.

Inside, the walls of the nave and chancel with four consecration crosses and the stone groined vaulting in the chancel all date from c.1120. There are traces of 14th-century wall paintings in the jambs of the east nave windows and a fragment of a 15th-century painted Last Judgment.

Four windows survive from the early 1100s: three on the north of the nave and chancel and one on the south. The west window, the east window, and the two easternmost windows of the nave date from the early 1300s.

The glass in the east window has a roundel with the arms of the see of York from after 1515; it is probably from the glass for Wolsey at Christ Church.

The north window has a roundel with the story of Joseph (16th cent. Flemish), two roundels with deacon saints (14th century), a head of Christ (14th century), and a shield of the see of Oxford for Richard Corbet, Bishop of Oxford (1628-32).

The plain, cyclindrical Norman font is early 12th-century. The screen has a 15th-century frame but is mostly modern.

The bench-ends in the nave are plain and very rustic; they may be 15th-century.The choir stalls in the chancel are Jacobean in style and have canopies from Christ Church, Oxford.

There are six bells, the earliest dating from 1640. The faceless clock is early 18th-century.