All Saints' Church, Great Bourton

All Saints' Church in Great Bourton is a small stone building of 13th-century origin, consisting of a nave, chancel, north aisle, and south porch. In 1852 the chancel arch was walled up, the chancel was used as a schoolroom, the nave was a dwelling-house for the schoolmaster, and part of the building was used as a grocer's shop. In 1862–3 the church was restored by William White, architect, and the north aisle was added to his designs. Wilberforce thought it a good restoration of the old chapel. The rebuilding cost £900. 

The churchyard wall was constructed between 1877 and 1880 and the detached Gothic campanile, Bourton's principal architectural ornament, consisting of a gabled timber belfry standing on a vaulted gateway, was built at the south-west corner of the churchyard. 

The glass in the east window is a memorial to Mary Ann Gunn (d. 1862), that in the south window to the Revd. Alfred Highton (d. 1906). The small bell housed in a recess in the west wall of the nave was made in 1673 by Henry Bagley. The larger bell in the campanile was supplied by Messrs. Smith and Sons of Clerkenwell, clockmakers, who also made and fixed the clock. Electric light was installed in 1934, and electric heaters in 1957. The wooden partition dividing the vestry from the church dates from 1935. The slates on the chancel roof were replaced by concrete tiles in 1954–5.

Bourton's share of the proceeds of Cropredy's 'Bell Land' amounted to £16 a year in the early 19th century, and was used partly to pay for ringing the Cropredy church bell, the remainder in aid of the church rate. 

The Bourton register of baptisms begins in 1863, of burials in 1864, and of marriages in 1872.

Historical information about All Saints' Church is provided by Christina Colvin, Janet Cooper, N H Cooper, P D A Harvey, Marjory Hollings, Judith Hook, Mary Jessup, Mary D Lobel, J F A Mason, B S Trinder and Hilary Turner, 'Parishes: Great and Little Bourton', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 10, Banbury Hundred, ed. Alan Crossley (London, 1972), pp. 175-184. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol10/pp175-184 [accessed 31 January 2023]..

All Saits' Church is a Grade II listed building, as is the vaulted gateway. For more information about the listings see CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS, Bourton - 1215872 | Historic England and LYCHGATE AT CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS, Bourton - 1287914 | Historic England

For more information aboutAll Saints' Church see Parishes: Great and Little Bourton | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).