Listing Text

SOUTH NEWINGTON THE TOWN
SP4033 (North side)
11/274 Church of St. Peter ad Virtcula
08/12/55

GV I

Parish church. C12, C13, C14 and C15. Restored 1595, 1755, 1822-3 and 1892-3.
Regular coursed ironstone rubble. Lead and Welsh slate roofs. Limestone
dressings. Chancel, nave, north and south aisles, west tower, south porch. C12
chancel: North and south windows of 2 lights with quatrefoils in heads. 3-light
Perpendicular east window. Pointed arched doorway to south has moulded jambs,
hood mould and plank door. Nave: C12, four 2-light Perpendicular clerestory
windows to north and south. North aisle: C12, two- and 3-light Decorated windows
have reticulated tracery. East window transitional from Decorated to
Perpendicular. Pointed arched doorway to right has hood mould and label stops.
Plank door. South aisle: c.1290-1300. 2 lancets to west end: two- and 3-light
windows with Y-tracery, Perpendicular tracery and intersecting tracery. South
doorway: c.1300. South porch: C15, wide 4-centred arch with quatrefoils in
spandrels. Canopied niche above. Crenellated parapet and crocketed pinnacles.
West tower: Early C14. 3 stages. Pointed arched west doorway has hood mould with
label stops. Plank door. 2-light windows with Y-tracery. Crenellated parapet.
Interior: Chancel has Decorated piscina with ogee head. Nave: 4-bay arcades to
north and south. Wider pointed small arched bay to east c.1300. North arcade has
2 plain round Romanesque arches and circular piers with scalloped capitals.
Pointed arch to west. South arcade has pointed arches. The 2 west arches have 2
orders of hollow chamfers and a round pier with a moulded capital. The 2
rectangular piers to the east have capitals with nail head decoration. C12 round
font has a band of zig-zag decoration. Box pews. C14 glass fragments in chancel
windows. C17 achievement of arms in window of south aisle to the Hall family.
Wall paintings: noted as the finest group of medieval wall paintings in the
County. C14 fragments over chancel arch. North aisle paintings c.1330 (Professor
Tristram) in Courtly style, oil on plaster: St. Margaret and the Dragon; St
James with kneeling doner; the Martyrdom of St. Thomas-a-Becket; the murder of
Thomas of Lancaster. Nave arcades: Late C15 paintings of the Passion series, in
primitive archaic style. Monuments: South aisled to Gamvel Hall interred 1639;
wall plaque to John Lane, d.1671.
(V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol XI, p,137, Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974,
pp.771-3).

Listing NGR: SP4074733338