St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock

St Mary Magdalene stands on Park Street in Woodstock, a few minutes from the gates of Blenheim Palace. Founded with the town in the twelfth century, it keeps a Norman south doorway and a classical tower of the 1780s, and was largely rebuilt in 1877 to 1878. It is listed Grade II*.

History

St Mary Magdalene began as the chapel of a new town. Henry II created the borough of New Woodstock beside his royal palace, but the land lay in the parish of Bladon, and Woodstock's church stayed a chapel of Bladon for centuries. It had its own burial ground by the thirteenth century, and the town corporation controlled it closely after Woodstock was incorporated in 1453; attempts to separate it from Bladon failed in 1675 and 1694.

The medieval church

The twelfth-century south doorway is the oldest work. The south aisle and its arcade followed in the thirteenth century, the chancel was lengthened in the fourteenth, a clerestory added in about 1400, and in the fifteenth century a pinnacled tower was rebuilt or raised.

The Georgian tower

In 1774 the old tower was pulled down to roof level. The new west tower was designed by Stephen Townesend of Oxford and built in 1784 to 1786 by Townesend and John Churchill of Woodstock; John Yenn designed a new north aisle at the same time. The Duke of Marlborough gave £200 and the corporation £100 towards £700, but the tower alone cost about £900. The listing names Yenn for the tower; the Victoria County History gives it to Townesend.

Blomfield

In 1877 to 1878 A. W. Blomfield rebuilt much of the church, replacing Yenn's aisle with an arcaded north aisle and adding a north chapel and a vestry with an organ loft. The west door became the main entrance and the Norman south door was opened up again. The south arcade and clerestory were rebuilt in 1896 to 1898.

What to see

• The south doorway: late twelfth century, two orders of zigzag moulding, best seen from the churchyard path.
• The tower: limestone ashlar, with a clock face on each side under carved swags and a balustraded parapet.
• The chimes: John Briant of Hertford installed the clock and a chiming mechanism in 1792, made to play six tunes a day; the chimes were given an electric mechanism in 1956.
• The bells: a ring of eight, recast and enlarged in 1708 and 1785 with the Duke of Marlborough's help.
• The sundial high on the south wall, towards the west end of the nave, which writes seven and eight as IIV and IIIV, an unusual form recorded by the British Sundial Society.
• Inside, a fifteenth-century rood screen with traceried panels, three thirteenth-century capitals carved with heads among stiff-leaf foliage, a fifteenth-century font and a Jacobean frieze in the organ loft.
• The brasses in the south aisle: Richard Bailly, who died in 1461 by the Victoria County History (the listing reads 1441), and Jerome Keyt, shown kneeling at prayer, who died in 1631.
• The east window by Burlison and Grylls, a memorial to the Duke of Marlborough who died in 1883.

Visiting

St Mary Magdalene is open every day from about 9am until dusk, the church says, for prayer or to look round, and entry is free. A Church Near You lists a ramp, an accessible toilet, a hearing loop, large print and guidebooks.

Getting there

The church is on Park Street (OX20 1SJ), opposite the town stocks and a short walk from the Market Place. There is no church car park, so park in the town; buses run to Woodstock from Oxford.

The Woodstock town walk starts at the stocks opposite and comes back through the churchyard, past the Norman doorway, by a kissing gate and steps from Rectory Lane.

Nearby

The church's sundial has a near twin on the Town Hall, a few steps away, as our story on the two sundials of Woodstock tells. A few steps away is the Oxfordshire Museum, and Blenheim's park holds the Column of Victory and Queen Pool. The Bear is across the street, with the Feathers, the Woodstock Arms and the King's Arms close by.