Bampton - St Mary's Church

About

The parish of Bampton was the largest in Oxfordshire and incorporated some 11,238 acres as late as 1877. It seems there was a church here long before the Norman Conquest, although the only surviving element before that time is the Anglo-Saxon tower with its fine herringbone stonework. It is likely that any earlier building was severely damaged in the siege of Bampton that took place in 1142 and that work on the present building began in 1153.

The present appearance of the church is largely a result of a remodelling of 1270, when the spire was built and the aisles were added.

In the last few years the church, along with the streets and buildings around it, has featured on a number of occasions in the hit television series Downton Abbey.