An interwar church in Tudor Gothic Revival style, built shortly after the founding of the parish. The planned sanctuary was never built. Although modest in scale, the church and lychgate make a positive contribution to the local townscape.

In 1931 a Mass centre was founded at Woodstock when Mary, Lady Terry, offered a hut in the garden behind her house (Haddon House, 18 Park Street). In 1933, the parish of Kidlington and Woodstock was erected and a plot bought in Woodstock. The present church was opened and blessed on 17 June 1934 by Archbishop Williams. The architect was G. B. Cox of Harrison & Cox, Birmingham and the builders Groves Brothers of Milton-under-Wychwood. The Duke of Marlborough donated a crucifix to the new church. The building cost £2,300. The report of the opening in The Tablet mentions plans for a future sanctuary which ‘will have an arched ceiling enriched with moulded ribs and cornices’. However, this was never built.

Between 1934 and 1945, a small parish school stood behind the church. This was replaced by the current hall at some point. From the 1940s the parish priest has lived at Kidlington (qv). Between 1969 and 1984, the parish was in the care of the Servites.

Description

The church faces northeast. This description follows conventional liturgical orientation.

The church was built in 1934 to a design by G. B. Cox of Harrison & Cox. The walls are of brick faced with rock-faced Chadlington stone with Clipsham stone dressings, and the roof is tiled. The plan is oblong with a porch at the southwest and a sacristy transept at the southeast. To the east of the sacristy is a small boiler house wing under a monopitch roof with a stone chimney.

The west elevation has two gabled buttresses framing a three-light window under a moulded arch. The entrance porch has timber doors under a catslide roof. The nave has simple two-light windows between buttresses. The sacristy has a similar window to the south but under a label with diamond label stops. The east elevation has a rendered brick area, indicating the site of the intended sanctuary.

The interior has four bays, divided by an arch-braced timber roof with three tracery panels in the apex of each truss. The sanctuary furnishings are of timber and the altar is carved with two angels and the Agnus Dei. The tabernacle is placed in the northeast corner, below a roof corbel. The east wall has a shallow arched recess and the door openings to the sacristy and the porch have Tudor arches. The Stations are small copper reliefs.

Heritage Details