Church Heritage Record 627228

5-bay nave with north aisle, west tower and 2-bay chancel. South porch. 

[Approximate] Nave 14m (46ft) x 6m (20ft), north aisle 3.5m (11ft5in) wide, chancel 12m (39ft) long.

Oxford was a Saxon Burh and town, probably founded circa 912: the town defences are mentioned in the Burgal Hideage.  It had became one of the most important towns in Wessex by 1066. The origins of the church are traditionally considered to be as a gate chapel (probably outside the north gate) to Osney Abbey, an Augustinian priory founded in 1129 by Robery D'Oilly the younger son of the first Norman Lord of Oxford. The foundation was granted abbey status in 1154, and extensively rebuilt and enlarged by Abbot Leech in 1247.

English Heritage Pastscape says the chapel of St Thomas was originally built in 1189-91, but Pevsner says it was built in 1141, and was originally dedicated to St Nicholas. This date seems to come from a local legend that the chapel was built during the siege of Oxford by King Stephen during his war with Mathilda.  The first incumbent is recorded 1196. The Conservation Area appraisal states that “the abbey precincts were entered from Osney Lane, on which stood the great gate, smaller gates, the almshouse and St Nicholas’ Chapel”.   This theory holds that the chapel of St Nicholas and St Thomas are one and the same.

In the 15th and early 16th century the nave was partly rebuilt and extended to the west, with a west tower and north chapel and aisle added. The south porch was added in 1621 under the curacy of Robert Burton, author of The Anatomy of Melancholy, whose arms adorn it.  In 1642 Parliamentarian troops captured at Cirencester were imprisoned in the church.

In 1826 major repairs and changes were made, the church re-seated, the floor raised, the south wall of the nave rebuilt, chancel arch removed and walls raised, by D Evans and W Fisher (ICBS). In 1846 the north chapel was removed and the north aisle with arcade built, and the chancel arch rebuilt, by J P Harrison. The blocked tower arch and two blocked windows in the chancel were opened.  The vestry was added 1898 by C B Hutchinson, the date can be seen on the rainwater goods. The chancel ceiling was decorated by Kempe in 1914, recently repainted and regilded. In 1936 the upper stage of the tower was restored by Thomas Dale.

The huge parish was reduced by the creation of the parishes of St Paul's in 1837, St Barnabas' in 1869, and New Osney St Frideswide's in 1873 as the population of Oxford increased.  The church is still a parish church of the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and is now in a united benefice with St Barnabas, a large neo-Romanesque church of 1869, also Anglo-Catholic in outlook. The modern vicarage is adjacent to St Barnabas’s.

An intriguing building, very heavily altered over the centuries, with multi-layered significance and many unanswered questions regarding its development; architectural stylistic dating may not help with the date of the actual features or fabric as they now are, one has to rely on observation and deduction, and in-depth analysis of the fabric and more research might bear fruit. 

The west tower gives the church strong vertical emphasis within this cramped site, and is visible looking west down St Thomas’s street or from the car park across the road, otherwise it does not have great townscape value. It has a crenellated parapet, small 2-light belfry openings and a further opening in the stage below on the south and north sides, with no demarcation of the stages. Buttresses of three weatherings, diagonal to the west corners.

The nave south wall has two 2-light pointed windows with hoodmoulds and Decorated tracery, both to the west of the south porch, which has the date 1621 and the arms of Dr Robert Burton carved on the gable. East of the porch is a 2-light and a 3-light window in squared frames with labels, which look to be original early 16th-century.  Plain buttresses.  The Victorian north aisle wall has three 2-light pointed windows with hoodmoulds and Decorated tracery, and another such in the east and west walls. There is a very simple north-east vestry with plain parapet and flat roof.

The chancel has three lancet windows, one in the south and two in the north, in the style of the late 12th century, much restored as is the priest's door built into the south side of circa 1250 with fine ironwork. Above this set within the wall is an eroded mass dial.  To the west of this door is a 3-light Early English window, possibly original.   There are buttresses to either side of the door. The east window is pointed with Decorated tracery.

Entering the church, it is whitewashed and fully pewed with plain benches in the nave and aisle.  The west bay is taken up by the organ gallery with painted texts and pipes, a space for group reading has been set up underneath. The tower space beyond could be potentially useful; the walls are lined with wall tablets and a benefaction board.

Looking east, the arcade and chancel arch are Victorian, in the style of the 14th century with hollow moulded pointed arches and quatrefoil piers. The floors are of quarry tiles, with geometric designs down the central alley and patterned encaustic tiles in the chancel. Canted Victorian ceilings, the nave roof has tie-beams painted with Victorian texts which continue around the wall plate, one suspects more behind the whitewash.

There is a Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle with Big Six, Pyx and the Eucharistic window, a notable High Church ensemble. A fine candelabrum dated 1705 hangs in the chancel (see monuments). There is a square aumbry in the north wall of the chancel, possibly original. The gilded and painted chancel ceiling has gold stars on a blue background, High Altar decorated as the chapel. Net curtains hide decorative encaustic tiles to the lower part of the east wall either side of the large oak Victorian reredos, which almost completely blocks the east window.