Witney St Mary's Church

Situation
At the south end of Church Green, Witney.

History

St Mary's Church, Witney - the spire.

Standing at one end of the town green, the imposing 156-foot spire and impressive size of St Mary's Parish Church reflects the wealth and importance of Witney in the Middle Ages; much of this wealth came from the wool trade. It is likely that Saxon Bishops of Winchester were responsible for the founding of the current church some time between 1070 and 1100 [1] although it is possible that a Saxon church may have stood on the site before this. It was under the powerful influence of Stigand (the last Saxon Bishop of Winchester, whose name and image can found on the Bayeux Tapestry) that Witney first began to emerge as a town; along with the church, a 'palace' or large manor house was built for the bishops [2]. Later, the Medieval church authorities and monasteries owned large estates in the Cotswold region on which many flocks of sheep were kept. They employed professional shepherds and became rich by selling wool to buyers both at home and abroad.

Despite many of the blanket makers being Non-Conformist (certainly by the 18th and 19th centuries), St Mary's still contains the graves of many of those in the trade: some of the headstones bear images of shuttles and other symbols relating to cloth making. The church also incorporates the mortuary chapel of the Wenman family who were wealthy wool merchants. Brasses on their altar tomb inside the church show Richard Wenman in a fur trimmed gown with a purse hanging from his belt and his two wives standing either side of him.

Clare Sumner