THE CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL
The present chancel and nave date basically from the early 13th century, with some remodelling at the end of the century and into the early 14th century. The 13th century figures of the church’s patron saints were salvaged and placed over the west door by the builders of the new tower in the 17th century.
A clerestory was added in the fifteenth century and includes a window over the chancel arch, a feature characteristic of Cotswold churches.
The seventeenth century north porch has a highly unusual domed vault with fan tracery, which the Oxfordshire volume of The Buildings of England (1974) notes as being similar to the much larger scale vaulting over the staircase to Christ Church hall in Oxford.
The landmark tower, with its heavy buttresses and eight splendid gold weathervanes, boasts a ring of eight bells. Charles I requisitioned the original six to be melted down for cannons and they were not replaced until 1791. A J Morris donated two further bells in 1946 to commemorate the Deddington Home Guard.
The clock, with its 18ft (5.5m) pendulum, was given to the community in 1832 by the heirs of William Hudson, a local draper and, until 1989, was wound by hand four times a week.
The pre-eminent Victorian stained-glass artist, C E Kempe, designed the east window and one in the north aisle while A J Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild was responsible for the two 20th century windows in the east and north walls of the north aisle.
On the wall near the north porch are the wooden battlefield crosses from the original graves of local men killed during the 1914-1918 war who were subsequently re-interred by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
More detailed information can be found at the church’s website www.deddingtonchurch.org, together with a video history of the church www.deddingtonchurch.org/video-tour.html, and in the Oxfordshire volume of The Buildings of England by Sherwood and Pevsner, of 1974, revised by Alan Brooks in 2017.
The current church dates back to the thirteenth century when it replaced an earlier Norman building of which only a fragment remains. A second major rebuilding was carried out after the medieval spire and tower crashed into the nave in March 1634 but the reconstruction was interrupted by the Civil War and not completed until 1685. The 1860s saw restoration work carried out by the Diocesan Architect, George Edmund Street.
A clerestory was added in the fifteenth century and includes a window over the chancel arch, a feature characteristic of Cotswold churches.
The seventeenth century north porch has a highly unusual domed vault with fan tracery, which the Oxfordshire volume of The Buildings of England (1974) notes as being similar to the much larger scale vaulting over the staircase to Christ Church hall in Oxford.
The landmark tower, with its heavy buttresses and eight splendid gold weathervanes, boasts a ring of eight bells. Charles I requisitioned the original six to be melted down for cannons and they were not replaced until 1791. A J Morris donated two further bells in 1946 to commemorate the Deddington Home Guard.
The clock, with its 18ft (5.5m) pendulum, was given to the community in 1832 by the heirs of William Hudson, a local draper and, until 1989, was wound by hand four times a week.
The pre-eminent Victorian stained-glass artist, C E Kempe, designed the east window and one in the north aisle while A J Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild was responsible for the two 20th century windows in the east and north walls of the north aisle.
On the wall near the north porch are the wooden battlefield crosses from the original graves of local men killed during the 1914-1918 war who were subsequently re-interred by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
More detailed information can be found at the church’s website www.deddingtonchurch.org, together with a video history of the church www.deddingtonchurch.org/video-tour.html, and in the Oxfordshire volume of The Buildings of England by Sherwood and Pevsner, of 1974, revised by Alan Brooks in 2017.
The current church dates back to the thirteenth century when it replaced an earlier Norman building of which only a fragment remains. A second major rebuilding was carried out after the medieval spire and tower crashed into the nave in March 1634 but the reconstruction was interrupted by the Civil War and not completed until 1685. The 1860s saw restoration work carried out by the Diocesan Architect, George Edmund Street.