Description

SP4631 DEDDINGTON CHURCH STREET
(North side)
8/153 Church of St. Peter and St.
08/12/55 Paul
GV II*
Church. Early C13, late C13, C14 and C15; tower rebuilt and church repaired
mid/late C17; repaired 1843, and restored 1858-68 by G.E. Street. Coursed
squared marlstone with limestone-ashlar dressings; lead roofs. Chancel, vestry,
nave, north and south aisles and porches, west tower. Early-C13 chancel was
lengthened to 4 bays in late C13 and has 2-light windows with Y tracery
separated by buttresses; one bay on the south has been altered to accommodate
the organ and the C19 vestry projects on the north. Both sides have restored C15
square-headed clerestory windows in contemporary walling. Large 3-light east
window with geometrical tracery is by Street. Broad south aisle has, to east, a
Tudor-arched window with 4 cinquefoil-headed lights above an arched subterranean
entry to the crypt. South wall has, to right, a fine 5-light early-C15 window
with drop tracery in a 4-centre-arched casement-mould surround, which is
attributed to Richard Winchcombe, the designer of the chancel at Adderbury
Church (q.v.); a 3-light early-C14 window has cusped intersecting tracery, and a
3-light C15 window to left of the porch has a depressed arch and drop tracery
incorporating a transom. C19 porch is flanked by chamfered arched recesses in
the aisle walls, and it shelters a C13 doorway with a deeply-moulded arch.
5-light west windows of aisles, with intersecting tracery and head stops, are
C17 and contemporary with the tower; a plainer 3-light window in the north wall
is probably also a restoration of the same date. C17 north porch has a moulded
Tudor-arched doorway and a quatrefoil-panelled parapet with corner pinnacles;
two 3-light C14 windows to left of it have geometrical tracery. East window
matches that of the south aisle. Nave clerestory has, each side, six 3-light
4-centre-arched windows with Perpendicular drop tracery, and has a 4-light
window over the chancel. All roofs are shallow pitched and have plain limestone
parapets. Tower, rebuilt after its fall in 1634, was not completed until c.1683.
It is of 4 stages with massive diagonal buttresses, and has a crenellated
limestone parapet with 8 large crocketed pinnacles. Moulded 4-centre-arched west
doorway has hood-stops carved as an eagle and a monkey, and above it is a
Classical entablature carried on bulbous pilasters. 4-light west window has
Gothic-Survival tracery, and above it large re-used stone figures of Saints
Peter and Paul flank a rectangular window. Bell-chamber stage has 2-light
openings with Y tracery, and on the east are 2 moulded lead C18 rainwater heads.
Interior: chancel has a fine late-C13 sedilia and piscina, incorporated in a
4-bay arcade with detached shafts and leaf capitals. C13 chancel arch of 3
chamfered orders, the inner a C19 restoration. 4-bay nave arcades, of 2
chamfered orders with circular and octagonal columns are C13 but were probably
partly rebuilt in C17. Tall tower arch is C17. South aisle has a mutilated c14
piscina, a chamfered tomb recess above which steps rise, and a tall doorway
formerly leading to a wall stair. North aisle has a C13 piscina, near the
blocked entry to a rood stair, and the early-C13 north doorway, now internal,
has a fine moulded arch and detached shafts with stiff-leaf capitals. North
aisle roof, with moulded cambered beams, is probably C17; nave roof may
incorporate old timbers but was rebuilt 1843; south aisle roof is C19 and
chancel roof C20. North porch has a unusual C17 stone saucer vault. Fittings
include a fine traceried C15 screen, a font of 1664 and C18 communion rails, but
are mostly C19. Monuments include a C14 effigy of a judge, part of a late-C14
brass, and a small panelled chest tomb with indented reredos and a fragment of
the brass inscription to William Billing (d.1533); Baroque wall tablets
commemorate Beta Belchier (d.1686) and Francis Wakefield (d.1730). Small
painted Hanoverian Royal Arms. Stained glass includes east window of 1888 by
C.E. Kempe and 2 windows of 1923 and 1936 by A.J. Davies of the Bromsgrove
Guild.
(Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: pp568-70; VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI,
pp113-15)

Listing NGR: SP4675031699

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548369

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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