St Nicholas' Church, Islip is the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Islip, Oxfordshire Islip is a village and civil parish on the River Ray, just above its confluence with the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England. It is about east of Kidlington and about north of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 65 ...

, a village about east of

Kidlington Kidlington is a major village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and 7 miles (12 km) south-west of Bicester. It remains officially a village ...

and north of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Parish church

Tradition holds that

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...

(''circa'' 1004–66) was baptised in a church in Islip. The

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...

the Confessor has certainly existed since at least 1065, but the earliest part of the present building is the

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

between the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and north

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

, which was built in about 1200 in the Transitional style between Early English and

Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

. The chancel was rebuilt in 1780. In 1861 the Gothic Revival architect E.G. Bruton remodelled the chancel and restored the rest of the church. In 1824 some medieval wall-paintings were uncovered in the south aisle. They included an

Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...

and a

weighing of souls The weighing of souls ( grc, psychostasia) is a religious motif in which a person's life is assessed by weighing their soul (or some other part of them) immediately before or after death in order to judge their fate. This motif is most commonl ...

, both of which were considered to have been painted late in the 14th century. There was also an earlier Adoration, over which the later version had been painted, and there was also a

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...

. All the paintings were plastered over during Bruton's restoration of the St. Nicholas' in 1861.

William Buckland William Buckland Doctor of Divinity, DD, Royal Society, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Buckland wrote the first full ...

, theologian, geologist and palaeontologist, is buried at the church. St. Nicholas' parish church is Islip's only

Grade I Listed Building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Bells and clock

The

belltower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

had a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of five bells cast in the 17th century. In 1859 George Mears of the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

recast them into a ring of six. In 1956 Mears and Stainbank of Whitechapel increased this to eight by casting the present treble and second bells. St. Nicholas' has also a Sanctus bell cast in 1652 by James Keene of

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

. The date of the church clock is unknown. It may be late 17th century, and is believed to have been made by Edward Hemins (the elder) of Bicester.

Benefice

Past incumbents of the parish include

John Islip John Islip (1464Barbara F. Harvey and Henry Summerson‘Islip, John (1464–1532)’ ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008–1532) was abbot of the monastery of Westminster, London, ...

Hugh Weston Hugh Weston ( – 1558) was an English churchman and academic, Dean of Westminster and Dean of Windsor, and Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford. Life He was born at Burton-Overy, Leicestershire, about 1505, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, ...

(1554 until 1558), John Aglionby (1600 until 1611), Thomas Atkinson (from 1638),

Robert South Robert South (4 September 1634 – 8 July 1716) was an English churchman who was known for his combative preaching and his Latin poetry. Early life He was the son of Robert South, a London merchant, and Elizabeth Berry. He was born at Hackney, ...

(1678 until 1716),

William Freind William Freind (c.1715–1766) was an 18th-century Church of England clergyman who was Dean of Canterbury from 1760 to 1766. Life He was the son of Robert Freind, headmaster of Westminster School and Jane, daughter of Samuel de L'Angle, prebend ...

(1748 until 1766), William Vincent (1807 until 1815),

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomina ...

(1816 until 1835), the geologist

(1846 until 1856), Francis Trench (1857 until 1875) and

Michael Scott-Joynt Michael Charles Scott-Joynt (15 March 1943 – 27 September 2014) was an English bishop and a Prelate of the Order of the Garter. He was appointed Bishop of Winchester, one of the five senior bishoprics in the Church of England, in 1995. He ha ...

(1976 until 1981). The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

parish is now part of the

Benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of the Ray Valley.

Rectory

Rev. Dr. South, who founded Islip's parish school in 1710, had the then Rectory built for him in 1689. The Rectory is a

Cotswold stone The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

double pile house of five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

with attic

dormer window A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s, 18th century

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s and a central doorcase with canopy on carved brackets. William Vincent had the house enlarged in 1807, and it was restored in the middle of the 19th century. The Old Rectory is Islip's only

Grade II* Listed Building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Edward the Confessor's chapel

King Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æthe ...

was born in Islip in about 1004. A

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

associated with him used to exist north of the church. Monks from

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

studying at

Gloucester College, Oxford Gloucester College, Oxford, was a Benedictine institution of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, from the late 13th century until the Dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century. It was never a typical college of the Universit ...

used to celebrate the feast of St. Edward at the chapel. In April 1645 during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

the chapel was damaged in a military engagement, and in the 1780s it was demolished. In 2006 the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

archaeology programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'' visited Islip and tried unsuccessfully to find the remains of the chapel.

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

* http://stnicholasislip.wordpress.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Islip, Saint Nicholas' Church Church of England church buildings in Oxfordshire Grade I listed churches in Oxfordshire