St. Mary's Church, Glympton

St. Mary's Church in Glympton comprises a chancel, nave with south porch, and a west tower. The 12th-century church was similar, but only the tower arch and the chancel arch, rebuilt in the 19th century, survive. Fragments of zig-zag ornament and of a corbel table were re-used in the 15th or 16th century when the tower was rebuilt. The nave was also rebuilt during the later Middle Ages. Both nave and chancel were said to have been rebuilt in the 1730s. but part of the nave walls and their buttresses survived that rebuilding. Round-headed windows were inserted in the nave, and a pediment added to the south doorway. The tower was repaired in 1818. The church was thoroughly repaired c. 1850, the work apparently including rebuilding the chancel arch. In 1872 the church was restored, under the direction of G. E. Street. The chancel was virtually rebuilt, new windows in 14th-century style were inserted in the nave, and a south porch and north-east vestry were added. The church was re-roofed in 1950, and the chancel was re-floored and re-ordered between 1955 and 1958. The font is 12th-century. On the inside of the north pillar of the chancel arch is part of an inscription: dedicatio huius templi idus martii. The lettering is of 12th-century character, but the inscription was not mentioned in 17th-, 18th-, or early 19th-century accounts of the church. Presumably it was removed from its original position during the medieval rebuilding, and discovered and built into the pillar of the chancel arch c. 1850.

On the north wall of the chancel is an imposing alabaster monument to Maud Tesdale (d. 1616) with kneeling figures of Maud and her husband Thomas (d. 1610); it was restored by Pembroke College in 1704. On the floor is a brass to the same Thomas Tesdale, recording his benefactions to Balliol College and Abingdon School; the brass was originally on an altar tomb. In the nave are memorials to several members of the Wheate family including Sir Thomas Wheate (d. 1746), his wife Mary (d. 1765), and his nephew Sir George Wheate (d. 1760), and to Alan Paul Good (d. 1953). On the wall of the tower are marble monuments to Francis Sackville Lloyd Wheate (d. 1812) and to William Way (d. 1845).

There are five bells, the earliest being of 1784, and a sanctus of 1705. The church plate includes a pewter tankard flagon and plate originally given in 1634 and recovered in the late 19th century. 

In the churchyard is a cross, erected in 1897 in memory of Henry Barnett (d. 1896).

Historical information about St. Mary's Church is provided by British History Online. A P Baggs, Christina Colvin, H M Colvin, Janet Cooper, C J Day, Nesta Selwyn and A Tomkinson, 'Parishes: Glympton', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 11, Wootton Hundred (Northern Part), ed. Alan Crossley (London, 1983), pp. 120-131. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol11/pp120-131 [accessed 13 April 2023].

St. Mary's Church is listed Grade II. for more informationabout the listing see CHURCH OF ST MARY, Glympton - 1367896 | Historic England.

For more information about St. Mary's Church see Parishes: Glympton | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).