St Frideswide's Church is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

church on the south side of the

Botley Road Botley Road is the main road into the centre of Oxford, England from the west. It stretches between Botley, on the Oxford Ring Road ( A34) to the west of the city, and Frideswide Square at the junction with Oxford railway station, close to ...

in the New Osney area of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was built in 1870–72 and dedicated to St Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford. St Frideswide’s Church is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building, recognized for its "unusually powerful design."

History

By the late 1860s, plans were made to build a dedicated church for the population of Osney Town (now New Osney). Christ Church College, which held the advowson of St Thomas’s parish, provided a triangular site known as “Mrs. Jones’s Field” north-west of Osney Island. The architect

Samuel Sanders Teulon Samuel Sanders Teulon (2 March 1812 – 2 May 1873) was an English Gothic Revival architect, noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings. Family Teulon was born in 1812 in Greenwich, Kent, the son of a ...

was commissioned to design the new church. The foundation stone was laid on 13 December 1870 by John Talbot, MP, at a public ceremony. It was built by the local firm of Honour & Castle and it was originally intended for the church tower to have a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

. On 10 April 1872, the church was consecrated for worship by the Bishop of Oxford,

John Mackarness John Fielder Mackarness (3 December 1820 – 16 September 1889) was a Church of England bishop. Life He was born in Islington (then in the county of Middlesex, now in Greater London) on 8 December 1820, the eldest son of John Mackarness, a West ...

. The new parish of St Frideswide’s was thereby established, carved out of St Thomas the Martyr parish to serve the Osney and Botley Road district. The church is dedicated to the patroness of Oxford, St Frideswide. This unusual choice was influenced by Christ Church’s historical connection to St Frideswide’s Priory, whose site became Christ Church Cathedral. Under its first vicar, Rev. George Lynch Kemp (who served from 1872 to 1896), the parish developed a strong identity with its roots in the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...

. The church also ran a parish school and various social activities for the predominantly railway and artisan families of the area. St Frideswide’s Church has seen gradual enhancements and continued active use throughout the 20th century. In the early 1900s, the chancel was embellished: a carved oak reredos (altar screen) was installed in 1906, and the east window was filled with stained glass. A set of five stained-glass windows by artist

Geoffrey Webb Geoffrey Fairbank Webb CBE (9 May 1898 – 17 July 1970) was a British art historian, Slade Professor of Fine Art and head of the Monuments and Fine Arts section of the Allied Control Commission during World War II. Early life Webb was born in ...

, depicting the Easter story, was added in 1931. During World War II, the church building survived the bombing raids on Oxford unscathed. In 1950, fourteen carved wooden angels were acquired and mounted on the nave walls, adding to the interior decoration. St Frideswide’s Church has played a continuous role in the religious and social life of its neighborhood since the 19th century. Music is an important part of the services. Worship at St Frideswide’s centers on two main services on Sundays: the Holy Communion early in the morning follows the traditional Book of Common Prayer and the Eucharist later follows a more contemporary service with music. St Frideswide's stands in the

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...

tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

of the

Architecture and design

St Frideswide’s is an example of high Victorian church architecture, notable for its bold and individualistic design by S. S. Teulon. The church is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar (dressed stone) detailing. Teulon’s original design was in a Gothic Revival idiom, but with some Romanesque influence evident in its heavy massing and round-arched elements. The church features a crossing tower over the north transept. On one corner of the tower rises a slender octagonal turret which contains a single bell (cast in 1871 by Warner of London). The west front of the church is richly treated, with strong buttresses and a large traceried window. Overall, the exterior design is regarded as one of Teulon’s most powerful and unconventional church designs, now protected by a Grade II* listing for its architectural interest. A notable element is the rose window: Teulon incorporated a “magnificent rose window of large dimensions” in the upper wall of the north transept, providing light into the crossing. Other notable interior features include a pipe organ by Hunter, which remains in use in the organ loft, and a set of fourteen painted wooden angel figures that hang from the nave walls.

The Vicarage at the Church of St Frideswide

The vicarage is a notable building in its own right. Due to its architectural interest the St. Frideswide’s vicarage is recognized as a Grade II listed building. The vicarage was built by English architect Harry George Walter Drinkwater of Oxford in 1876. Architecturally, the vicarage complements the church with similar materials and Victorian Gothic styling. It is a two-storey house constructed of the same grey Oxford limestone with ashlar trim as the church. The vicarage is linked to the north side of the church by a short covered passage or cloister. Notable features of the vicarage include mullioned windows with stone surrounds, gabled roofs covered in tiles, and tall stone chimneys, which give the vicarage a picturesque Cotswolds cottage character. In the 21st century, the old vicarage building was extensively restored. A portion of the large rear garden (formerly the vicar’s orchard) and part of the vicarage were sold off and converted into a separate private dwelling. Henry Hardy, editor of the writings of philosopher-historian

Sir Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

, lived for a decade in the vicarage of St Frideswide’s. Together, the church and its vicarage form a charming historic ensemble along Botley Road, embodying the 19th-century vision of a parish church with its clerical house side by side.

Popular culture

The church was the setting of a Morse detective story,

Service of All the Dead ''Service of All the Dead'' is a crime novel by Colin Dexter, the fourth novel in his Inspector Morse series. Setting The novel describes a series of murders in and around St Frideswide's Church, Cornmarket, which corresponds to St Mary Magdal ...

by Colin Dexter. In 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 ...

is the "Alice Door", carved by

Alice Liddell Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (''née'' Liddell, ; 4 May 1852 – 16 November 1934) was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip becam ...

. Alice Liddell was the inspiration for

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

''. She was the daughter of

Henry Liddell Henry George Liddell (; 6 February 1811– 18 January 1898) was Dean (college), dean (1855–1891) of Christ Church, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1870–1874), headmaster (1846–1855) of Westminster School (where a house is n ...

, the

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

Location

St Frideswide’s Church is set back from the Botley Road, a short distance from the railway station and the city center. The church lies between two rivers: the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

to the east and the

Osney Ditch The Osney Ditch is a side channel of the River Thames at Oxford, England. It is one of the principal watercourses in west Oxford. The ditch leaves Bulstake Stream just east of Binsey Lane and then rejoins the main stream of the Thames south of ...

to the west.

Vicars of St Frideswide's

* 1872-96 George Lynch Kemp * 1896-1905 Augustus Jameson Miller * 1905-14 William Alfred Spence * 1914-22 George Herbert Tremenheere * 1922-33 Charles Overy * 1933-76 Arnold Mallinson

Gallery

File:St Frideswide's, Osney - geograph.org.uk - 1590381.jpg, View of the church from the south. File:St Fridewides church - geograph.org.uk - 1102595.jpg, View from the northeast. File:St_Frideswide's_Church_on_a_winter's_day.jpg, St Frideswide's Church on a winter's day File:St_Frideswide's_Church,_interior.jpg, The interior of St Frideswide's Church File:Vicarage of St Frideswide's.jpg, The Vicarage of St Frideswide's File:St Frideswide's Church, from the East.jpg, St Frideswide's Church, viewed from the East File:Grey Heron on the Thames — Osney.jpg, Grey Heron on the Thames next to St Frideswide's Church

References

External links

St Frideswide's Church website

Find St Frideswide's
1872 establishments in England Churches completed in 1872 Frideswide English Gothic architecture in Oxfordshire Anglo-Catholic church buildings in Oxfordshire Alice Liddell {{England-church-stub