St Mary's Church, Banbury

St Mary's is the big classical church on Horse Fair in Banbury, near the Cross. Samuel Pepys Cockerell designed it, and it opened in 1797 in place of a large medieval church. Historic England lists it Grade I. Look for the round tower above its semicircular portico.

The story of St Mary's

The town built this church because it decided the old one was failing. The medieval building was cruciform and large, with a mid-fifteenth-century central tower. The Victoria County History traces the worry back to 1724, when its pillars were called too slender. In 1789 surveyors reported that the tower was pressing down on the piers.

After further advice from James Wyatt and from Cockerell, the town obtained an Act of Parliament in 1790 for an entirely new church. By 1793 the old one was gone, and the same history says some of the masonry could only be brought down with gunpowder.

The new church opened on 6 September 1797 without its tower or portico, and for a time the tower wore a temporary thatch. Work resumed in 1818 under C. R. Cockerell, the bells were rehung in 1820, and the church was complete by 1822.

The Victorian interior

Arthur Blomfield remodelled the inside in the 1860s and 1870s, with stained glass and wall paintings by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. In 1874 the chancel was raised to full height and given an apse, and the parish says the cancelli, the low screens, were modelled on those at San Clemente in Rome. Further alterations in 2002 extended the chancel to make a stage and added access and toilets.

What to look for

The building's shape is the first thing to take in: a nave with a gallery on three sides, a rusticated ground floor outside and a semicircular Doric portico below the tower. Inside, the parish's own history picks out details most visitors would miss:

• The Arctic window, a memorial to Admiral Sir George Back
• The stained glass in the gallery windows: 30 scenes from the life of Jesus above, 10 parables below
• The organ, built in 1765 by Byfield, Wilcox and Knight for the old church and much altered since
• The Lamp of Brotherhood, which came from Monte Cassino in 1964
• Memorials from the 1580s to the 1820s, recorded in the listing

The tenor bell was cast in 1667 and kept its inscription when the bells were recast into a ring of ten and rehung in 1930, after the old ring had become unsafe.

Two stories the parish does not back

An attribution of the organ to the maker Snetzler has been repeated, and the parish says there is no evidence for it. Jonathan Swift gave Gulliver a family with Banbury tombstones, and the parish notes that no ancient tombstones survive to support that.

Visiting St Mary's

St Mary's is a working church. The parish says it is open most days from 10am to 12 noon, unless welcomers are unavailable, so ring the parish office on 01295 276045 before making a special trip. The church hosts concerts through the year, and when we checked, Christmas concerts were listed for December 2026 on the parish's booking pages. A concert is a good way to see the building in use. On Remembrance Sunday the parade comes here from the Town Hall before a wreath-laying in People's Park.

Getting there

St Mary's is on Horse Fair, OX16 0AA, on foot from the High Street and Banbury Cross. Drivers should use a town car park: see our guide to parking in Banbury.

Nearby

The Cross and the Fine Lady are both a few minutes away, and People's Park is close by. Banbury Museum and Gallery covers the town's wider story. For a contrast in church building, the medieval St Mary's at Adderbury is a short drive south.