Hornton Oxfordshire Two (247)

An attractive Ironstone village just north of Banbury, Oxfordshire. The church of St John the Baptist has a three stage Perpendicular tower and externally all architectural features are either Perpendicular or Decorated. When you enter the church the north arcade proves to be C12, except the west bay which was added in the C14. The south arcade has octagonal piers and was added in the Decorated period. A blocked C14 arcade in the chancel wall once led to a north chapel. To the south of the chancel is an ogee-headed Decorated piscina and a fragment of a reredos decorated with birds and flowers. An attractive Norman font with blind-arcading beneath cable-moulding and the south aisle has part of a painted C15 screen. Perhaps the most important features of the church are the late C14 wall paintings, a Doom over the chancel arch, on the north side of the chancel arch a Pieta and on the south St George and the dragon, the guide book suggests it is a depiction of the Black Prince and suggests the Doom might be C12 or C13 in origin. There are other C14 fragments in the south aisle and in the north Prince of Wales feathers and C17 texts. A south window has the

fragments of medieval glass including a C14 shield of Verdon. There are two brasses in the south aisle Thomas Sharman died 1586 and his son.

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