• 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. Laurence's Church in Appleton consists of a chancel 28 ft. by 15 ft. with north chapel making a total width of 30 ft., nave 44 ft. 4 in. by 14 ft. 9 in. with north aisle making a total width of 31 ft., west tower and north and south porches. These measurements are all internal.

The development of the building is rather obscure, but the nave is probably of 12th-century date, the north arcade dating from the late in that century. The chancel was perhaps rebuilt in the 13th century, but the door is the only detail of that period. Various windows were inserted in the 15th century, and the west tower was then built. The south porch is an early 16th-century addition. The north aisle was rebuilt and the north chapel added, probably in the 17th century, the north aisle being ceiled about 1612. Both appear to have been subsequently altered, and the north porch was probably added early in the 18th century. The church has been slightly restored in modern times.

The chancel has a restored east window of three lights and of 14th-century character. In the north wall is an arcade of four bays opening into the north chapel. The semicircular wainscoted arches are of the 18th century and rest on square piers with moulded capitals and bases. These inclose circular wooden posts of earlier date. In the south wall is a pointed priest's doorway, perhaps of 13th-century date, and further west is a square-headed early 16thcentury window of two plain lights. The chancel arch is modern and the wagon roof is ceiled. The north chapel has a two-light east and a three-light north window, both of plain square-headed lights.

The nave has a north arcade of four bays and of about 1190 to 1200. The pointed arches are of a single chamfered order and rest on cylindrical piers with moulded bases and capitals of deep projection. The first capital has good carved foliage volutes and the second has similar volutes and interlacing bands ornamented with nail-heads; the third is moulded, and all have square abaci. The responds are square, the eastern having a scalloped capital partly restored. At the east end of the south wall is a two-light 13th-century window with a modern head and mullion. The plain pointed south doorway is of the same date, and further west is a square-headed 15th-century window of two lights. The trussed rafter roof of the nave is apparently of 15th-century date. The north aisle was apparently widened when it was rebuilt, but traces of the original west wall remain. It has two three-light windows in the north wall and another at the west end, all square-headed and with plain lights. The north doorway has a four-centred head, perhaps earlier work re-used. The roofs of the aisle and north chapel are both of wagon form and ceiled.

The west tower is of three stages with a square turret at the south-east angle rising to the base of the third stage, and an embattled parapet. The blocked tower arch is of the 15th century; it is pointed and of two chamfered orders, the inner resting on brackets, that on the south having a head corbel. In the west wall is a pointed two-light window of doubtful date, and below it is a four-centred 15thcentury door with quatrefoil panelled spandrels. The second stage has a square-headed 15th-century light in the south wall, and the belfry has a two-light square-headed window of the same date in each face. On the top of the tower is a wooden louvred lantern. The north porch was apparently built about 1700 and has a four-centred outer archway. The south porch has a four-centred outer archway with a small canopied niche in the gable above it and plain oak double doors of early 16th-century date. Each side wall has a loop light and the roof is of stone slabs.

The early 17th-century communion table is of oak with turned legs, and the early 18th-century rails with turned balusters and square fluted posts now stand at the entrance of the chancel. The font has a slightly tapering cylindrical bowl of the 12th century and stands on a circular base with spiral flutings, of which only a part is ancient. The octagonal cover, of steeple form, is of late 17th-century date. Two old open benches remain in the nave, and in the chapel is a small quantity of Jacobean panelling.

On the south of the altar is a handsome wall monument to John Fettiplace (1593), with a long Latin inscription. The freestone recumbent effigy is represented in armour, and over it is a flat canopy with an entablature resting on fluted Corinthian columns; above it are obelisks and an achievement of the Fettiplace arms quartering Bessels and Leigh. The back of the tomb is enriched with elaborate strapwork, cherubim, &c., and the whole has been whitewashed. In the north chapel are a number of tablets to members of the Southby family, including Robert Southby (1717). On the chancel floor is a shroud brass to John Goudrington (1518). On the soffit of the first arch in the nave is a painted collect, giving thanks for 'this good gift given by the hands of Sir Richard Fettiplace.' In the first window of the north aisle of the nave are three glass shields, one of Golafre, the other two with uncertain heraldry.

There are ten bells: the treble of 1875, the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh by Mears of London, all given by J. Southby in 1817, and one of them recently recast; the eighth recast 1874; the ninth and tenor given by F. E. Robinson in 1861.

The plate includes a cup (London, 1659) inscribed 'Appelton'; a cover paten (London, 1728); an almsdish (London, 1683) inscribed 'The gift of Mrs. Anne Southby to the use of the church of Appleton 1683'; and a plated flagon.

The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) mixed entries 1569 to 1709; (ii) mixed entries 1710 to 1801, marriages to 1752 only; (iii) marriages 1754 to 1812; (iv) baptisms and burials 1802 to 1812.

Historical information about St. Laurence's Church is provided by 'Parishes: Appleton', in A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4, ed. William Page and P H Ditchfield (London, 1924), pp. 335-341. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol4/pp335-341 [accessed 24 February 2023].

St. Laurence's Church is a Grade II* listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST LAWRENCE, Appleton-with-Eaton - 1048421 | Historic England.

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