St Mary's Church, North Leigh

St Mary’s Church stands in the quiet Oxfordshire village of North Leigh, about five kilometres north-east of Witney. Its late Anglo-Saxon tower rises above the village street, the oldest part of a building that has grown in almost every century since. Inside, the nave and chancel show Early English Gothic arches from the 12th century, while the Wilcote chantry chapel has delicate 15th-century fan vaulting. A 15th-century Doom painting once covered the east wall of the nave, uncovered and restored in the 19th century. The church is worth the journey for its layers of history and craftsmanship. The tower’s bell frame holds six bells recast in 1875 by the Whitechapel foundry, still rung today. The Wilcote chapel was built for Elizabeth Wilcote after she lost two sons and her first husband, and its chantry served daily Mass for their souls. The Perrott family later added a burial chapel in 1723, designed by Christopher Kempster, who had worked with Sir Christopher Wren in London. A visitor finds a low, broad interior lit by restored Gothic windows and Georgian plain glass. The fan-vaulted Wilcote chapel stands to the north, its ribs meeting in a single central boss. On the chancel’s east wall the Doom painting shows Christ in judgement, its vivid figures now visible above the chancel arch. The Perrott chapel holds large 18th-century memorials, while the south porch rebuilt by G E Street in 1864 frames the view back into the nave.