• Home
• Cherwell
  • List of villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in Cherwell
  • Photography dates
• South Oxfordshire
  • List of villages
  • Thames-side villages
  • The Oxfordshire Chilterns
  • Recommended villages to visit in South Oxfordshire
  • Photography dates
• Vale of White Horse
  • List of villages
  • Thames-side villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in Vale of White Horse
  • Photography dates
• West Oxfordshire
  • List of villages
  • Recommended villages to visit in West Oxfordshire
  • Photography dates
• Information
  • Useful links
  • "Midsomer Murders" film locations
  • Link your website to Oxfordshire Villages
  • Weather forecast and traffic
  • Licenses and acknowledgements
  • Contact me

St. Swithun's Church in Merton is a stone building almost entirely of the 14th century; it consists of a chancel, clerestoried nave, south aisle with porch, and west tower. Originally there was also a north aisle, and the western tower was surmounted by a fine spire, 60 ft. high, which was once a conspicuous landmark. Still a fine church, it was originally one of the biggest and most ornate in this part of the country.

The chancel, which is not exactly orientated, but inclines slightly towards the north, contains three good stone sedilia, a piscina, a tomb recess in the south wall, and an aumbry in the north wall.

The nave on the south side has four early-14thcentury arches set on octagonal pillars with moulded capitals. The roof of the nave was rebuilt in the late 15th century, and the clerestory added. Both the roof and the walls of the nave were once covered with 'brilliantly' coloured wall-paintings; they were described as 'dim with age' in 1823, and in the restoration of 1865 it was found impossible to strip off the coats of whitewash with which they were covered without destroying them. In the 15th or 16th century the north aisle was pulled down, the three nave arches filled in, and the three Decorated windows moved from the aisle to the nave wall. The three-light east window in the south aisle has 'Decorated' 14th-century tracery and the 14thcentury south door has a 15th-century panel over it. 

During the latter half of the 18th century the church was in a dangerous condition. In 1795 the spire was said to be 'out of the perpendical', and only kept together by rusty iron cramps. The churchwardens, instead of repairing it, got permission with the 'unanimous wish' of the parish to demolish it, and to sell five of the seven bells to cover the cost of the scaffolding and the releading of the roof. John Heritage received £55 for removing the steeple in 1796 and Thomas Whale £3 1s. 2d. for taking down the bells, which were sold for £77 13s. In the same year a further £72, raised by a rate, was spent on repairs, probably to the body of the church, as the rectory tenant was responsible for the chancel

In the first part of the 19th century the church was kept in fairly good condition. In 1808 £15 odd was paid for repairs, and in 1811 £17 13s. for repointing the tower; in 1817 the William and Mary church clock was repaired for £5 15s. In 1827 new pews were installed in the south aisle by the vicar, Dr. Lys. In 1822 heating is first mentioned; the churchwardens purchased coal. 

In 1865–6 the church, said to be in a shameful condition, was extensively restored by the architect C. Buckeridge; the work, which included the installation of new pews and the replastering of the nave, was not completed until 1872, when the church was formally reopened by Bishop Wilberforce. The restoration cost £785, partly raised by a loan from the Diocesan Building Society. In 1866 the chancel was repaired by Exeter College, and a new roof added at a cost of £300. The old roof had been causing trouble since 1809, and in 1813 the college had inserted a clause in the lease of the rectory, stating that the tenant should rebuild the chancel if it fell down. 

In 1922 a sacristy was made in the tower and a new mahogany screen erected across the tower arch, which had been removed from the priory church of St. John, Clerkenwell, and presented by its rector and churchwardens to Merton; in 1923 the chapel at the east end of the south aisle was made a memorial to the men who died in the First World War. Between 1924 and 1926 £600 was spent on restoring the chancel, nave, and tower; of this sum, £400 was raised by private subscription outside Merton and only a small contribution was made by the village. In 1935 part of the nave roof was destroyed by fire; its restoration was carried out by Prof. A. E. Richardson, P.R.A. He also designed the chimney for the heating apparatus.

The stone font is medieval, and has a 17thcentury wooden cover which, according to Dunkin, formerly bore the date 1639 and the initials 'hk.' The well-designed wooden pulpit is of the 17th century. The 17th-century chancel stalls with carved bench-ends came from the Jacobean chapel of Exeter College, which was pulled down in 1855, and were installed at the time of the 19th-century restoration. The wooden screen between chancel and nave, which bore an inscription to the effect that the church had been beautified in 1718 by the churchwardens William Bartlett and John Preston and was still standing in 1823, has now gone. The 16th-century communion table has a detached slab and was installed some time after 1559. The church is still lighted with oil lamps.

Within the chancel is a coloured alabaster monument erected to John Doyley (d. 1593), and his wife Anne Barnard. It carries the kneeling figures of a man in armour and a woman, with the figures of their four daughters below. It is surmounted by the arms of Doyley quartering More. There is also a monument to Elizabeth (d. 1621–2), daughter of Sir Henry Poole. Among the Harrington ledgers on the floor of the chancel is one to Katherine (d. 1675), wife of Sir James Harrington the Republican, who is buried in the chancel but without a memorial. There are also inscriptions to Lucy, widow of James Harrington (d. 1713); Lucy Harrington (d. 1660) and Theodosia Fountaine (d. 1684), daughters of Sir Edward Harrington (d. 1716), who is also buried in the church; to Richard Harrington (d. 1712) and to Richard Harrington (d. 1763); to Richard Bartlett (d. 1683); Mary, wife of John Bartlett (d. 1753); Richard Bartlett (d. 1722), William Bartlett (d. 1717), and his father Richard (d. 1685), and tablets to other members of the family. There are also tablets to Christopher Irons (d. 1666) and his son John (d. 1683); to Silvanus Vaughan (d. 1678) and to his wife Joan, the daughter of Edward Presser, a yeoman of Merton; to Robert and Joseph Vaughan; to William Ridges (d. 1691) and to John, son of Arthur Vosper. 

In 1552 the church was richly furnished. Among its possessions were a 'chalice of sylver and gylte', 2 crosses 'the oon of brasse the other of copper', 2 copes 'oon of grene sylke and the other red', and '3 payer of vestmentes with awbes one of which was made of yellow silk'. The church still (1953) possesses a silver chalice and paten-cover presented by Lady Anne Poole in 1629, and a tankard flagon of silver presented by L. W. Rawlinson in 1857. 

The western tower contains two bells, one inscribed 'Rich. Keene cast this ring 1694', and the other a modern bell of 1887. The Edwardian Inventory records three bells and a sanctus bell. 

All that remains of the ancient parish cross is a small shaft, formerly surmounted by a sundial, removed in the 19th century. The churchyard was enlarged by Sir Edward Turner at the time of the inclosure and again in 1866 and 1905. The modern churchyard gates are a gift of the PageTurners.

The Revd. James Vernon, curate of Merton, who as chaplain at St. Helena officiated at Napoleon's funeral, is buried in the churchyard. 

The registers are as follows: (i) 1635–1737, baptisms and burials with some gaps; (ii) 1655–84, births and burials with some gaps; (iii) 1737–1812; (iv) 1754–1814, banns and marriages; (v) from 1813, baptisms, marriages, and burials.

Historical information about St. Swithun's Church is provided by 'Parishes: Merton', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5, Bullingdon Hundred, ed. Mary D Lobel (London, 1957), pp. 221-234. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol5/pp221-234 [accessed 14 February 2023].

St. Swithun's Church is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST SWITHIN, Merton - 1369750 | Historic England.

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