The Church of St. Nicholas and St. Swithun, Yelford
The church of St. Nicholas and St. Swithun is in Yelford. The former dedication was recorded regularly from 1334; the latter was first appended c. 1740 on the evidence of the will of Sir John Ardern (d. 1408) which stipulated burial in St. Swithun's church, Elford, in fact Elford (Staffs.) but wrongly identified as Yelford. The building, only c. 52 ft. long and 16 ft. wide in the interior, comprises a nave and chancel of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and a south porch of ashlar; the roofs are stone slated. A carved relief with beaded arcs reset in the east wall of the porch may be 12th-century or earlier. Otherwise the nave, chancel, and porch seem to have been rebuilt in the late 15th century or early 16th, probably after a period of decay caused by depopulation, and probably soon after the Hastings family had returned to residence in the parish. The uniform thickness of the walls and standardised form of window suggest that nave and chancel were of one build, and the porch was probably added soon afterwards. A pair of blocked pointed apertures in the west wall, wrongly identified as 13th-century lancets, were bellopenings, probably post-medieval, protected in the 19th century by a weather-boarded structure on the exterior. An open bellcote was built over the west gable in the late 19th century. The church, in 'sad disrepair within' in 1869, was restored and re-seated by 1873; the roofs were reslated in the 1950s. The windows, font, piscina, south door, and carved wooden screen are all of c. 1500. The high-pitched roofs of both nave and chancel retained low-pitched ceilings in 1850; the nave ceiling is of c. 1500, oak, with moulded purlins and cambered tiebeams, and there is a similar ceiling in the porch; the chancel's higher, barrel-shaped ceiling was presumably inserted during the restoration of c. 1870. The lectern was given in the 1950s and a new pulpit in 1965. Until 1965 the church was lit by candles or oil lamps. There are two bells, one given by Elizabeth Lenthall in the 1660s, the other, perhaps originally of the same date, recast for E. K. Lenthall in 1891. In 1759 the curate complained of the lack of communion plate and in 1792 the rector David Hughes presented a chalice, which was stolen in recent times. There were no burials in the church and the sole memorial is to B. Babington Smith (d. 1993). The register dates from 1813; another, dating from 1745, was lost before 1907. The churchyard shows no sign of interments, despite the recorded burial there in 1700. A church repair fund of £80, given by will of E. K. Lenthall (d. 1907), was augmented with £500 given by Mrs. E. M. M. Parker (d. 1969) Historical information about the church of St. Nicholas and St. Swithun is provided by British History Online. A P Baggs, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, C J Day, Nesta Selwyn and S C Townley, 'Yelford: Church', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 13, Bampton Hundred (Part One), ed. Alan Crossley and C R J Currie (London, 1996), pp. 215-217. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol13/pp215-217 [accessed 14 April 2023]. The church of St. Nicholas and St. Swithun is listed Grade II*. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS AND ST SWITHIN, Hardwick-with-Yelford - 1198970 | Historic England. For more information about the church of St. Nicholas and St. Swithun see Yelford: Church | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk) |
