page_title: Merton, Oxfordshire
section_title: Church and chapel
hierarchical_section_title: Merton, Oxfordshire / Church and chapel
caption_attribution_description: English: St Swithun, Merton, Oxon - Sanctuary
context_page_description: Merton is a village and civil parish near the River Ray, about 4 miles south of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 424.
context_section_description: The Church of England parish church of Saint Swithun is Decorated Gothic, built early in the 14th century. It has a south aisle, linked with the nave by an arcade of four bays. Late in the 15th century the Perpendicular Gothic clerestory was added to the nave. The chancel windows and one window in the south aisle are also Perpendicular Gothic. The font is much older than the church, dating from late in the 12th century.
  St Swithun's had a north aisle but it was demolished in the 15th or 16th century.  Its arcade of three bays was blocked up and remains in the north wall of the nave. The tower had a spire but it became unsafe and in 1796 it was removed.
  St Swithun's most notable monuments are wall-mounted ones in the chancel commemorating John Doyley (died 1593) and his wife, Elizabeth Poole (died 1621) and Richard Harrington (died 1712). The Poole monument has strapwork and Tuscan columns but is significantly mutilated and in want of restoration.
  A turret clock for St Swithun's was made late in the 17th century. Its original dial had only an hour hand. In 1867 this was replaced with a new dial that has both hour and minute hands. Some time after 1989 a new turret clock was installed; the 17th century original is now displayed in the nave.
  The Gothic Revival architect Charles Buckeridge restored St Swithun's from 1865 until 1872. St Swithun's had been decorated with mediaeval wall paintings, once brightly coloured but by 1823 described as "dim with age". During the restoration work it was found impossible to remove the layers of whitewash covering them. St Swithun's is a Grade I listed building.
  In the Edwardine Inventory of 1552 St Swithun's had three bells and a Sanctus bell. In 1795 the bell tower had a ring of seven bells but the churchwardens obtained permission to sell five of them to pay for a new lead roof for the church. By the 1950s there were only two bells: one cast by Richard Keene of Woodstock in 1694 and the other cast in 1887.
  In 1565 the Crown sold the advowson and rectory to William Petre, who in 1572 gave both to Exeter College, Oxford. The ecclesiastical parish of Merton is now part of the Benefice of the Ray Valley.
  A Congregational chapel was built in 1890. It was still in use for worship in 1953.
caption: St Swithun's parish church: chapel in the south aisle, with 14th century Decorated Gothic east window
exif: {}