St Mary's Church, Broughton

St Mary's stands in the park of Broughton Castle, in Broughton, west of Banbury. It was built about 1300, when Sir John de Broughton was building the castle, and Historic England lists it Grade I. Inside are a rare stone chancel screen and the effigies, tombs and hatchments of the castle's owners from the fourteenth century onwards.

The story of St Mary's

The church and the castle grew up together. The Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust dates the church to the early fourteenth century, the time of Sir John de Broughton's house, and the listing puts the main build at about 1300, in regular coursed ironstone. The south aisle gained a clerestory in the late fourteenth century and the nave one in the fifteenth.

The castle passed to the Wykehams and then to the Fiennes family, Lords Saye and Sele, and the church filled with their memorials. Gilbert Scott restored the sedilia and piscina in 1858, and the Scotts restored the whole church between 1877 and 1880. The church, the park and the moated castle together have been used for films and television, the Historic Churches Trust notes.

What to look for

Start outside with the west tower, three stages under a broach spire with small gabled openings, and the west door with ballflower ornament under an ogee hood. Inside, the screen comes first. The listing calls it a rare Decorated stone chancel screen, with three crocketed ogee arches on each side of the central arch and a cornice of carved heads. Then find these:

• A cross-legged knight, probably John de Broughton, who died in 1315, in a canopied recess in the south aisle, a lion at his feet and angels at his pillow. The listing notes that the effigy and canopy were heavily repainted in 1846
• Alabaster effigies of a knight and lady in a recess in the chancel, the knight probably Sir Thomas Wykeham, who died in 1470
• A knight in plate armour of about 1350, on a fifteenth-century tomb chest in the south aisle
• A canopied tomb with a panelled vault and pendants, probably bearing the arms of Edward Fiennes, dated 1528
• The double chest tomb of William, Lord Saye and Sele, who died in 1662, and his wife Elizabeth, who died in 1648
• A brass to Lady Philippa Bishopsden, who died in 1414
• Ten hatchments in the south aisle, dated 1666 to 1847, all for Fiennes and Twisleton family members who lived at the castle

Look too for fragments of fourteenth-century wall painting in the chancel and on the north wall of the nave, a twelfth-century font with a rope-moulded rim, communion rails of 1637, a nave beam dated 1684 and a few late medieval floor tiles. Three sixteenth-century heraldic roundels survive in a south window.

The identifications of the effigies are the listing's, and it says probably. Other accounts name some of them differently, so treat the names as best guesses.

Visiting St Mary's

The parish publishes no opening hours. The National Churches Trust's page, supplied by the church and undated, says it opens on Wednesday, Sunday and bank holiday afternoons, which are the castle's open days, so the simplest plan is to come when the castle is open and park beside the church. The church has no toilet of its own; on open days the castle's toilets are in the car park. The Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust lists it among the churches open for its annual Ride and Stride day. It is a working parish church, so services take priority.

Getting there

Broughton is on the B4035 west of Banbury. In the village, turn right at the crossroads by the Saye and Sele Arms, then left at the bottom of the hill into the castle drive through the main gate by the lodge. The car park, by the church, is free to paying castle visitors. See the buses around Banbury for the way without a car.

Nearby

Broughton Castle is the reason most people come, and the church is the natural second half of the visit. The Copes' house at Hanwell Castle tells the same Puritan story a few miles to the north, and Swalcliffe Barn is a short drive west. For more fourteenth-century carving, go to St Mary's in Adderbury or St Mary's in Bloxham.