St. John's Church, Hempton

The chapel of St. John the Evangelist at Hempton was built in 1850–1 at the expense of the Revd. William Wilson, D.D. of Over Worton. There may have been a medieval chapel in the hamlet, since lands said to have been given for a priest and a lamp in Hempton church were granted away by the Crown in 1568. In the 1840s the vicar, W. C. Risley, was paying a small fee to William Wilson the younger for serving the Hempton parishioners. While the new chapel was being built evening services were held in a barn, fitted up at Wilson's expense, the congregation averaging 110 in 1851. In 1861 the chapel site and some adjacent property were bought by trustees, including Bishop Wilberforce, whose plans to consecrate the chapel as a chapel of ease to Deddington were never fulfilled, presumably because of its inadequate endowment. It remained a licensed, unconsecrated chapel, served by the local clergy, including P. R. Egerton, founder of Bloxham School, and several of his assistant masters. In the early 1860s a stipend of £40 was provided by the Spiritual Aid Society, and a smaller sum from an endowment by Dr. Wilson, but the living was so poor that James Turner, unable to find a curate to serve it, for a time closed the chapel. In 1878 Hempton was being served, gratuitously, by a curate, and later Thomas Boniface served it himself. Usually there was one service only, on Sunday evening. In 1878 it was complained that there had been a revival of 'Romish practices' there. 

The chapel, designed by William Wilson the younger, the founder's son, and built by Robert Franklin and James Hopcraft of Deddington, comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, bellcot, and south porch in local ironstone. The north aisle was used as a schoolroom. The 12th-century font was transferred from Over Worton church

Historical information about St. John's Chapel is provided by A P Baggs, Christina Colvin, H M Colvin, Janet Cooper, C J Day, Nesta Selwyn and A Tomkinson, 'Parishes: Deddington', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 11, Wootton Hundred (Northern Part), ed. Alan Crossley (London, 1983), pp. 81-120. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol11/pp81-120 [accessed 31 January 2023].

St. John's Chapel is a Grade II listed building. For more information about the listing see CHAPEL OF EASE OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST, Deddington - 1046341 | Historic England

For more information about St. John's Chapel see Parishes: Deddington | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk)