| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Leader: | |
| Group email: | Historic Churches group |
| When: | Monthly on Thursday mornings 3rd Thursday of the month |
| Cost: | Churches generally rely on donations, so come prepared! |
There are some amazing ancient Churches in Oxfordshire, with a rich history and amazing works of art, particularly in the form of sculptures - memorials of various kinds, carved wood in screens, chairs and other furniture. There is also rich history centered in, and around our ancient Churches. Edward the Confessor was born in Islip, and the Chancel was destroyed by canon fire in the Civil War!
Many Churches have printed leaflets outlining the architecture, history, and the significant elements of the Church. Some churches are able to organise guides or maybe our members know about / will do some research and lead on a particular church, so we are able to find much out about the Buildings, their riches, and their places in history
The Group meets on the 3rd Thursday morning of each month, with information about the destination shared by email to group members. Since some of the Churches are quite remote, we encourage and do our best to enable, lift sharing. Our future plans should be included in the "Notices" section on the Welcome Page .
Some Blogs about our recent visits
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Historic Churches visits St Andrew's Oddington
The Historic Churches Group visited St Andrew’s Church in Oddington near Islip in June. We had an excellent guide, Nigel who detailed the fascinating history of this beautiful church. St Andrew’s has been a Pilgrim Church since 2012; Nigel has walked the Camino Francais to Santiago de Compostela in order to raise money for the…
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Historic Churches visit Adderbury
The group’s April visit was to St Mary’s Church in Adderbury. This is a really beautiful church full of history. We had an excellent guide, who explained the fascinating history of St Mary’s. The land that the church stands on was gifted in about 1015 by Aethelstan son of Ethelred the Unready who wrote to…
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Historic Churches goes to St Mary, Chipping Norton
The 15th Feb was when we visited this amazing Church .... HUGE, and so bright and airy as it has a magnificent Clearstorey almost all the way round the Nave. It was on our radar as I d been to a Lumos Concert the previous month, and was blown away by the Building; clearly there…
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Historic Churches visits Christchurch Cathedral, Nov. 2025
We'd prebooked a group visit with the Cathedral - we 've done so annually for the past 2 years there are blogs for 2023 - and 2024 and this year our Guide was Steve, and we did the Architectural Tour. A bit of a misnomer really; while we looked at the Archiecture of the Cathedral,…
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Duns Tew, October 2025
Duns Tew was on our "must visit" list, as when we visited Hampton Poyle, several years ago, we discovered that the Rector of Hampton Poyle, Richard Thomason, had gone on to St Mary, Duns Tew, where he had ended his days "hung in chains from the Tower" during the Reformation, due to his refusal to…
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Historic Churches visit St Mary, Freeland
We visited the relatively modern church of St Mary, Freeland on the 18th September 2025. The Church was consecrated in 1869, by Bishop Wilberforce, had initially 4 bells with 2 more added as recently as 2010 - there was surprise that at this - they willnot have been cheap, casting, and then installing them. Most…
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The Historic Churches Group visit St Peter and St Paul, Deddington
August 22nd saw us girding our loins and voyaging to distant Deddington - I think everyone drove, or shared lifts, and there were about 20 of us in total. Deddington, historically, has been a significant place - Bishop Odo, William the Conquerors step brother, was awarded the land around after the Conquest, and built a…
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Combe Church visit
The "Historic Churches" group visited St Lawrence, Combe on the 20th Feb. Linda, the Church Administrator and former Churchwarden was our Guide, welcoming us with (fresh) coffee, tea, biscuits - thank you! Linda told us much about the village, the Church, and their history since - before - the Doomsday book. The Village is formally…