Brief history

St Mary the Virgin church was originally built during the 18th Century but was so disliked by the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, that he had a new church designed and built by George Edmund Street. It is a grade II* listed example of Gothic Revival architecture.

The Rev. Elton first acquired the land in 1847 but it wasn’t until 1855 that the chapelry of Wheatley was separated from the Parish of Cuddesdon and the glebe land and land for the church was sold by The Rev Elton to the parish. In January 1856 an agreement was signed for the erection of the new church for £1,763 16s 6d. It is constructed from Wheatley limestone. The west tower was completed in 1868 with the addition of the spire built by Hollands of Thame.

The belfry contains six bells, four of which are from the original 18th Century church and one of which is a Russian Sanctus bell from Troitsa (thought to have been claimed as a spoil of war) given to the church in 1921 and about which there is romantic speculation.

The old St Mary’s Church 1795-1856

There was once another St Mary the Virgin church built in the 18th Century which stood where the War Memorial is now sited.

Stained glass memorials

The Rev. Elton commissioned two stained glass windows: one in memory of his son, Ambrose, who died in 1853 aged 5 months, which is in St. Nicholas’ church at Forest Hill, and the other for his father John, who died in 1856 aged 72 to be found in the Sanctuary at St Mary’s.

Census record 1861 to show The Rev. Elton’s household

The first vicar, The Rev. Edward Elton, found the local girls too immoral to employ as servants so by 1861 he had a governess and a cook from London, a nursemaid from Warwickshire, a housemaid from Wallingford and an under housemaid from Waterstock.

The Russian Sanctus Bell

The names of the bells are: Edward (Treble), Samuel (2nd), King (3rd), Frideswide (4th), Birinus (5th), Mary (Tenor) and Trinity (Sanctus).

Did you know?

1. On 14th June 1857, the first baptism took place in the new church. This was for Georgina Stanley, who later became a cook and never married. Her father was Alban Stanley who was a local stonemason and possibly worked on the construction of the church.

2. The first marriage, on July 26th 1857, was between John Carter, a 22 year old painter, and Eliza Gomm, aged 20. John’s father Joseph was also a painter and Eliza’s father Robert was a stonemason. Perhaps he too worked on the church.

3. The first burial in the new graveyard was on 2nd July 1857 for Ann Edmonds, aged 56.

4. On January 15 1862, the vicar dismissed the ringers and Churchwarden for ‘bad behaviour'. The exact nature of their misbehaviour is unspecified, but ringers and drink were closely associated at this period, and many clergy waged a perpetual war with their ringers.

5. The churchyard contains three Commonwealth War Graves: a Wiltshire Regiment soldier and a Royal Navy sailor of World War I and an Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry soldier of World War I.

6. St Mary’s was the first church George Edmund Street ever designed and is in the Gothic Revival style of architecture. He had previously designed the theological college at Cuddesdon and his final work was The Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, London (shown below).

7. William Morris and Philip Webb were George Street’s assistants on the design of the church.

Timeline

1847

The Rev Elton purchased the land

1857

Church is consecrated

1862

100 villagers moved in to build the High Wycombe to Oxford spur of the Great Western Railway

1864

Wheatley railway station opened (shown in photo above)

1868

West tower completed with a spire

1870

May and June - riots by agricultural labourers at Littleworth

1872

The Conacher organ was installed

1873

Many villagers emigrated to the Colonies due to lack of work and poverty

1875

The Post Mill burnt down leaving only one mill in the village

1880s

Destitution, soup kitchens and hard winters were prevalent in Wheatley

1888

Merry Bells built as a non-alcoholic public house (opening day photo shown below)

1910

Flash flooding deposited 3 feet of debris and water in the URC

1912

The Wheatley Windmill was hit by lightning which tossed the miller and his wife out of bed!

1915

The Windmill ceased production

1914-18

180+ men left for war, 36 did not return

1921

Russian Sanctus bell gifted to the church (Russian Bell tower it came from shown above)

1939-45

9 men lost during the war

1951

Sewerage first laid in Littleworth

1963

Wheatley Station closed

1965

Lady Spencer-Churchill teacher training college opened

1974

M40 opened

1980

Theresa Brasier married Philip May

1995

‘Save Wheatley Spire’ campaign restored the church spire

2000

Original organ replaced by an electronic one