St. Lawrence Church Oxhill

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A walk around the Church
Porch The porch itself is fifteenth century, but it encloses a Norman doorway, which has at the top of its area a carved head with a thin hand at its mouth. The columns on either side are decorated with carved foliage, and on the western side this is issuing from the mouths of human faces.

Nave

Of the two north windows, the one nearest the door dates from the twelfth century. The larger one beyond it is fourteenth century, and has been copied by the Victorians for the east window of the chancel. The wall beneath it has a recessed stone seat. A piscina has been reset into one side.

The remains of another piscina and an artists impression of what it may have looked like is displayed bear the lectern.

The south window by the pulpit is nineteenth century. The clerestory (the upper row of windows) is thought to be sixteenth century in origin, but the south side has been altered more than once. In 1876 it was restored to be more in keeping with the north side, replacing (according to Kelly's Directory of 1880) others of “an incongruous character” which had been inserted earlier that century. The impression given by a photograph of the windows before restoration tends to bear out this description.
Roof Some part of this may be sixteenth century, but it has been renovated. It was installed in 1876, as being a roof “of a more suitable character”, and may therefore, like the screen, have been brought from elsewhere at this date.
Pews These date from 1876, replacing “twelve pews in the body of the Church”', which an old photograph shows to have been high box pews. The new pew ends were copied from some fifteenth century pews that have been retained over the years at the back of the Church, and which, prior to the resealing, were reserved for the poor.

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Send mail to the Rector of St. Lawrence Church at rector@oxhill.org.uk.

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Last modified: January 30, 2003