CHURCHILL OLD CHURCH
Although the building has the appearance of a Victorian chapel, it is, in fact, on an ancient site. Roman and Saxon remains have been found nearby and it is believed that a Christian Church stood here in Saxon times. After the Conquest, the de Vernon family owned the Manor in 1086 and intermarried with the de Noer family. By 1170 the de Noer family were lords of the Manor of Churchill and in 1175 Henry de Noer and his wife Juliana gave the advowson of Churchill to St. Frideswide's Priory in Oxford. The first recorded Rector was in 1235. The parish church of which this chapel is the only remaining part, was constructed, probably by the de Noers in the early fourteenth century in the Decorated style and completed by 1348.
It was then at the centre of the village, traces of which can be clearly seen in the field by the churchyard. After a dispute on burial fees between Churchill and Sarsden judgment was given in 1375 in favour of Churchill “and let it be remembered that Churchill church from long ago was accostomed to have the mortuary fees for all the parishioners of Sarsden dying there”. Many of the houses in this part of the village were destroyed by a disastrous fire in 1684. Reports of visitations by the Bishops describe the memorials in the church. “The Arms of the de Noer family” and “over the belfry door the Arms of Sir William Barrentyne, lord of Churchill after the de Noers in 1447”. This memorial is now in the chapel.
Around 1700, during the time the Walter family were Lords of the Manor of Sarsden, the tower was rebuilt and later the chancel restored by the Rev. James Butterworth. The date [1702] was inscribed high on the east wall where it can still be seen. During recent repair work on the chapel, whilst digging for a soakaway the vault of the Walter family, which had been under the south aisle was exposed, containing a number of lead coffins some bearing an engraved letter W.
By the end of the 18th. century the church was in a bad state of repair and in 1825 on the direction of J.H. Langston, who had the living of Churchill & Sarsden, owned Sarsden estate and most of Churchill, the Bishop was petitioned and permission was obtained to pull down the old church and build a new one higher up the hill in what was, by then, the new centre of the village. The new All Saints was consecrated in 1827.
The Churches of the Sarsden Estate
The early records of the two Churches of the Sarsden Estate, if they ever existed, are long since gone. The first evidence we have of a Church in Churchill is in cl. 1172 when Henry de Noers gave the advowson of Churchill to St Frideswides Priory, at which time there must have been a Church. It is probable that this Church was of Norman origin and had been built by one of the Chaldri family when they acquired the Manor after the Conquest. However, as we know from Domesday, Churchill, Sarsden and Lyneham were Saxon Manors and it is probable that all three had Churches of some sort prior to 1066.
The Sarsden advowson was granted to Bruern Abbey in 1201 by Roger Golafre. The Church was probably a Chapel attached to the Manor House much as it is today. There is no evidence of a Saxon Church but it would have been where the present one stands. Lyneham seems never to have had a Church, at any rate, after Saxon times. It could be that the Manor was served, first by St. Mary’s on the Heath at Tretone, which is now Bruern and then by Bruern Abbey. There is evidence that at one time there was a Chapel in Lyneham, north of the village, in the area in which Fines Court once stood.
There is a record in the 1783 survey of a Chapel Green Lane and also a Chapel Ground.
This Chapel could have been a private one attached to Fines Court, in which case it probably dated from the 13th century.There is an engraving of Churchill old Church in Skelton’s Antiquities c 1823 which shows the Church while it was being demolished. This is an engraving of a partly demolished Church, not of a ruin, and all Skelton did was to leave out the demolition men. The old Church was of interesting construction. The tower, which can just be seen in the engraving, was in the centre of the building, west of the Chancel. It was square and probably low, of Norman architecture, and must have been built on an arch in the West wall of the Chancel. The original door was most likely in the South wall of the tower. It seems quite likely that the Chancel and tower were the original Norman Church and had been built over the old Saxon foundations. At some later date the Nave was built and at an even later date the South Aisle was added. The old Chancel was restored in c. 1702 and there is no evidence of the previous building except for the outline of a large window in the East wall. When the old Church was destroyed in 1823, for no known reason except as an excuse to build the new Church, the South door and arch were preserved and used for the door to the present Chapel. This was probably due to there being no other door available rather than any thoughts of preservation. The reason given for obtaining a faculty to pull the Church down was that it was unsafe, but in fact all that was needed was a bit of restoration which would have cost less than building a new Church. Skelton says in his account that there was a beautiful Gothic tracery window in the East wall of the South Aisle which can be seen in his engraving.
The tower contains five bells, two of which were inscribed:-That man can not here always live [Large bell] our mournful sound does warning give [Next bell]
These two bells at least were founded by Richard and James Keen of Woodstock in 1630. The Keens came to Woodstock from Bicester in 1626 and appear to have given up in 1680. They once tried to re-found Old Tom bell in Oxford but failed to do so. When James Haughton Langston the younger, then owner of Sarsden Estate, had the Church pulled down, all records together with all the Church plate and furnishings seem to have been lost and all we know of these possessions is that in 1720 an Oxford edition of a Great Bible was presented to the Church by Sir John Walter and that in 1724 his widow gave a silver Chalice with cover. Both these items have disappeared. There was at one time a large number of Memorial Tablets in the Old Church but presumably these were broken up with the rest of the Church. Fortunately there is a record of at least some of them.
The Old Churchyard originally surrounding the medieval church, which was pulled down in 1825, measured approximately 165 x 190 feet. It was bounded by a stone wall with a gate to the north of the present arch. To the south, north and west were the buildings, gardens and dove houses of the Parsonage House. The Church Road, now known as Hastings Hill, went to the gate before turning north to join Mill Road. From at least the 12th century it had been the burial ground for Sarsden and Churchill and according to a petition “was almost full of bodies”.
In 1820 the Parsonage land to the south was added and following a further petition in 1848 J.H. Langston sold the site of the Parsonage House to the west of the old yard. This was consecrated on 20th September 1848.The memorial inscriptions in the Old Churchyard, Hastings Hill, were recorded by Mrs. C.Rathbone of Churchill between 1985 and 1987. This project was started in 1973 by the Rev. Ralph Mann of Hook Norton. At that time he recorded some of the old memorials threatened by a clearance scheme. This was subsequently abandoned but by 1985 many of these were quite illegible and could not be checked. They have, however, been checked against the burial register and included as a valid record.
The New Churchyard was given by Earl Ducie in 1886 and consecrated in 1939.
LAWRENCE NURSES CAR SHOWMETHODIST CHURCH MAPS OLD CHURCH WHERE ARE THEY NOW? PLACES TO STAY PARISH COUNCIL
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