From a humble beginning, through 300 years of attentive
From
a humble
years of attentive
ownership
by beginning,
Cistercian through
monks to300
a dedication
on
ownership by Cistercian monks to a dedication on
4th
4thFebruary
February2000
2000bybythe
theBishop
BishopofofDorchester,
Dorchesterwe
to:
have the story of :
St Margaret of England,
St Margaret’s of England,
Little
LittleFaringdon,
Faringdon,Oxfordshire.
Oxfordshire.
The Shill and Broadshires Benefice - Church Guide
Before King John
The earliest history of this Grade II* listed
church is not recorded, can we deduce a
little? On 25th January 1205 King John
gave the manor of Little Faringdon along
with the manors of Great Faringdon,
Great and Little Coxwell, Inglesham,
Langford and Shilton to the Cistercian
monks. All the manors except Little
Faringdon and Inglesham, are listed in
the Domesday Book (1086) .
In Saxon times all these places and half
Oxfordshire were owned by King Harold
and so passed to William the Conqueror
after the Battle of Hastings, and on to
King John.
From the Dissolution of the Cistercian
Abbey of Beaulieu in 1538 until 1864
Little Faringdon was certainly a chapelry
of Langford. Was it a chapelry of
Langford before 1205?
St Matthew’s at Langford was a minster
church in Saxon times when Christianity
was spreading into the area. Minsters
were where groups of priests, friars or
monks lived and from where they travelled to smaller chapels-of-ease, maybe
Little Faringdon, Radcot and Grafton
(which have lost their chapels) to convert
and preach to local communities.
After 1205 the Cistercian monks spent
money hiring skilled stone masons to
extend the church and build an arcade
with carved pillar capitals. English
Heritage states that the church was
extended in circa 1200 and heightened
circa 1500. So English Heritage appear
to agree that a simple building existed
here before the Cistercian monks used
their wealth and knowledge to add many
expensive and notable features.
The Property of Little Faringdon Church 2
The Shill and Broadshires Benefice - Church Guide
The White Monks.
King John gave Great Faringdon to the Cistercians as a possible place to build their
abbey. They chose to build at Beaulieu but retained all the local manors as farming
granges for income. The Cistercians, white monks as they wore un-dyed sheep
wool habits, were a strict order living by agricultural means. They improved
medieval farming by their many innovations.
Little Faringdon lies at the centre
of the area King John gave to the
Cistercians which extends from
their massive tithe barn at Great
Coxwell, left, with a possible
arable emphasis, to their grange
at Shilton which had living
accommodation and a smaller
tithe barn. Sheep farming was the
emphasis in this period and the
wool was exported.
Architectural Features.
Deeply moulded, round arches of the
Norman (Romanesque) style with foliated
capital carvings verify that this was built around
1200, just before the stronger pointed Gothic
arch appeared extensively in England.
The intricate flat leaf,
late Romanesque
carved capitals, above
the stout Norman
columns, testify to the
skill of the medieval
stone masons.
The Property of Little Faringdon Church 3
The Shill and Broadshires Benefice - Church Guide
Two other “fashion” features dating the
building of the arcade to the early 1200s
are the faces carved between the arches
above the columns, in the spandrels
(below), and those at the centre, the apex,
on top of the arches (at left).
A 12th century tub font, the 12th century
nave and 12th century chancel, all with
the lower level eave height, indicate that
the Cistercians did not waste time but
speedily built this church in its present,
mainly Norman, style.
Eternal damnation, hell, demons
and devils played a major part
in medieval religion. They even
feature in this church’s
architecture.
The one behind the pulpit shows
traces of wall painting which
probably originates from the
1200s.
The Property of Little Faringdon Church 4
The Shill and Broadshires Benefice - Church Guide
In the chancel the niche (below left) between the east windows is possibly an Early
English deep cusped design while the aumbry is Decorated period.
The only item from the
Decorated period in this
church is the aumbry,
dry cupboard, (or some
suggest it’s an Easter
Sepulchre,) in the north
east wall of the
Chancel (at right).
It has a ball flower
decoration used during
Edward I’s time (1237 1309). This proved so
expensive to produce
that only about six exist
in England.
The Cistercian medieval church would have had a
flat floor with an altar table, the Mensa, in the centre
of the chancel around which the clergy, monks in this
church, received the Sacrament. However, records
appear to indicate that there was only one monk
here and 3 permanent farm workers.
The chancel was separated from the nave by the
chancel arch and a rood screen. Axe and other
marks at the top of the chancel arch indicate that a
rood screen existed here but was allegedly hacked
out by Cromwellian soldiers. Fixings and axe marks
are definitely visible top right.
The nave was for the laity and would have been the
village social and business centre.
After Dissolution churches
became a parish responsibility and often fell into
disrepair.
It is probable that the 2nd Baron de Mauley, who arrived in the
village in 1862 at the height of the Victorian “Gothic” Revival period, carried out
major refurbishment, installed pews, plastered walls and had stained glass
windows installed.
The Property of Little Faringdon Church 5
The Shill and Broadshires Benefice - Church Guide
Stained Glass
The south nave window contains a collection of mid 13th century medieval glass
fragments in rounded formats from, allegedly, Salisbury cathedral. Some further
fragments are 17th century and come from the Netherlands.
The medieval glass
fragments on the left
and above are
possibly 13th century
fragments from
Salisbury cathedral.
The two on the right
are 17th century
pieces from the
Netherlands.
In the right hand light of the later west window glass is the
tell-tale wheatsheaf trademark of the well known stained
glass artist C. E. Kempe (1837 -1907).
The height of the nave was increased about 1500
and the original eave height is visible on the west
and south sides externally below the string course.
At this time the window housing the medieval glass
fragments may have been altered and
strengthened to accommodate the clerestory
window above it.
The increased height of the west wall also allowed
the perpendicular style window to be installed in
the west end. The perpendicular style was used
from approx 1350 to 1500 when Tudor designs, too
late for this church, became fashionable.
The Property of Little Faringdon Church 6
The Shill and Broadshires Benefice - Church Guide
The Exterior
As you leave the church, glance at the stoup, for holy water, in the porch, note the
Crusader crosses on the external porch door pillar, study the perpendicular style
west window (1500) under the bell cote (early 20th century with earlier bells) and the
closed north doorway with the Maltese cross above it. Finally note the unusual castiron gravestone as you return to the path leading to the gate.
Unusually this church has a porch built in the
1200s at the same time as the main reconstruction
took place. Usually porches were added in Tudor
times. Seating was provided because commercial
negotiation and contract signing often took place in
the church porch.
The old stoup in the north east corner was for the
holy water which everyone would have used
entering and leaving the church. The inner door
was remodelled in the 14th century but the outer
doorway is claimed to be original and on the pillar
are three carved “Crusader crosses”.
Three Crusader crosses can be
found on the left hand, outer
door frame. The story is that
Crusaders made one cross
when they left home and a
second when they returned.
More crosses, probably
Crusader, are also carved into
the exterior east chancel wall,
below.
From 1089 until 1844 both Langford and Little
Faringdon were part of Berkshire and under the
jurisdiction of the Lincoln Diocese. When the
Ecclesiastical (nowadays the Church) Commissioners
bought the cathedral estates Langford and Little
Faringdon were transferred to the Oxford Diocese and
to Oxfordshire. In 1864, soon after the 2nd Baron de
Mauley’s arrival, Little Faringdon separated from
Langford and became an independent parish . It
remained so, with its own vicar, until the mid 20th
century when it rejoined Langford and later a larger
benefice.
The Property of Little Faringdon Church 7
The Shill and Broadshires Benefice - Church Guide
Externally, the vertical tracery of the
perpendicular style Gothic period is more
discernible in the west window. This is
probably late perpendicular, 1500 -1538,
as the window has a Tudor style hood
moulding over it.
The bell cote is early 20th century,
according to English Heritage, although
the bells are earlier, one dated 1805.
Below the window the string course, and
change of stone coursing, show where
the nave height was increased.
As a chapelry, probably, no one
was buried in this churchyard
before 1864; until then corpses
would have been carried along the
road and footpaths to Langford for
burial.
Below a cast-iron gravestone, very
rare, one other can be found in
Broughton Poggs churchyard and
a second in Burford church.
Finally, in the lean-to north aisle, dating from
1200, is a simple, low and narrow, in-filled
segmented arch doorway with a Maltese
consecration cross in the arch centre. It is
thought that it was used for excommunication
of persons unknown from the monastic order or
Catholic Church? It was probably blocked after
the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
There was no known dedication of this church
so it was dedicated to St Margaret of England,
an early Cistercian nun, in 2000 by the Bishop
of Dorchester to mark the 2nd Millennium.
The sources of information for this guide have been the leaflet found in the church
originally, English Heritage, John Blair’s Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire and
various histories about the Cistercian order and Knights Templar, etc. Victoria County
History and Dr Mark Page’s research into Langford’s history is also acknowledged and
some of his information has also been included here.
Photographed and produced by Derek Cotterill 2008.
The Property of Little Faringdon Church 8