Churchill Old Church
Although the building has the appearance of a Victorian chapel, it is, in fact, on an ancient site. Roman and Saxon remains have been found nearby and it is believed that a Christian Church stood here in Saxon times. After the Conquest, the de Vernon family owned the Manor in 1086 and intermarried with the de Noer family. By 1170 the de Noer family were lords of the Manor of Churchill and in 1175 Henry de Noer and his wife Juliana gave the advowson of Churchill to St. Frideswide's Priory in Oxford. The first recorded Rector was in 1235. The parish church of which this chapel is the only remaining part, was constructed, probably by the de Noers in the early fourteenth century in the Decorated style and completed by 1348.
It was then at the centre of the village, traces of which can be clearly seen in the field by the churchyard. After a dispute on burial fees between Churchill and Sarsden judgment was given in 1375 in favour of Churchill “and let it be remembered that Churchill church from long ago was accostomed to have the mortuary fees for all the parishioners of Sarsden dying there”. Many of the houses in this part of the village were destroyed by a disastrous fire in 1684. Reports of visitations by the Bishops describe the memorials in the church. “The Arms of the de Noer family” and “over the belfry door the Arms of Sir William Barrentyne, lord of Churchill after the de Noers in 1447”. This memorial is now in the chapel.
Around 1700, during the time the Walter family were Lords of the Manor of Sarsden, the tower was rebuilt and later the chancel restored by the Rev. James Butterworth. The date [1702] was inscribed high on the east wall where it can still be seen. During recent repair work on the chapel, whilst digging for a soakaway the vault of the Walter family, which had been under the south aisle was exposed, containing a number of lead coffins some bearing an engraved letter W.
By the end of the 18th. century the church was in a bad state of repair and in 1825 on the direction of J.H. Langston, who had the living of Churchill & Sarsden, owned Sarsden estate and most of Churchill, the Bishop was petitioned and permission was obtained to pull down the old church and build a new one higher up the hill in what was, by then, the new centre of the village. The new All Saints was consecrated in 1827.
The Churches of the Sarsden Estate
The early records of the two Churches of the Sarsden Estate, if they ever existed, are long since gone. The first evidence we have of a Church in Churchill is in cl. 1172 when Henry de Noers gave the advowson of Churchill to St Frideswides Priory, at which time there must have been a Church. It is probable that this Church was of Norman origin and had been built by one of the Chaldri family when they acquired the Manor after the Conquest. However, as we know from Domesday, Churchill, Sarsden and Lyneham were Saxon Manors and it is probable that all three had Churches of some sort prior to 1066.
The Sarsden advowson was granted to Bruern Abbey in 1201 by Roger Golafre. The Church was probably a Chapel attached to the Manor House much as it is today. There is no evidence of a Saxon Church but it would have been where the present one stands. Lyneham seems never to have had a Church, at any rate, after Saxon times. It could be that the Manor was served, first by St. Mary’s on the Heath at Tretone, which is now Bruern and then by Bruern Abbey. There is evidence that at one time there was a Chapel in Lyneham, north of the village, in the area in which Fines Court once stood.
There is a record in the 1783 survey of a Chapel Green Lane and also a Chapel Ground.
There is an engraving of Churchill Ol d Church in Skelton's Antiquities c. 1823 which shows the church while it was beng demolished. The is a partly demolished church not a ruin. The Old Church was of interesting construction. The tower was in the centre of the building, west of the chancel. It was square and probably low, of Norman architecturs and must have been built on an arch in the west wall of the chancel. It seems likely that the chancel and tower were the original Norman church and had been built over Saxon foundations. At some later date the nave was built and later still a south aisle was added. The old chancel was restored in c.1702 and the only evidence of the previous building is the outline of a larger window in the east wall. When the old church was destroyed in 1823, the south door and chancel were preserved and used for the door of the present chapel. The reason given for obtaining a faculty for pulling down the old church was that it was unsafe but the small amount of restoration needed would have cost less than a new building. Skelton says in his account that there was a beautiful Gothic tracery window in the east wall of the south aisle which can be see in this engraving. A copy of this can be seen in the porch of the new church, All Saints.
The tower contains five bells which were inscribed: - "That man ca not always live (large bell) our mournful sound doth warning give" (next bell). These two bells at least were founded by Richard and James Keen of Woodstock in 1630. The Keens came to Woodstock from Bicester in 1626 and appear to have given up work in 1680. They once tried to re-found Old Tom bell in Oxford but failed to do so. When James Haughton Langston, the younger, then owner of Sarsden estate, had the church pulled down, all records together with all the church plate and durnishings seem to have been lostand all we know is that in 1720 an Oxford edition of thr Great Bible was presented to the church by Sir John Walter and that in 1724 his wqidow gave a silver chalice with cover. Both these items have disappeared. Ther was a one time a great number of memorial tablets in the Old Church but presumably these were broken up with the rest of the church. Fortunately there is a record of at least some of them.
The old churchyard originally surrounded the medieval church, which was pulled down in 1825. It measured approximately165 x 190 feet. To the south, north and west were buildings, gardens and dove houses of the parsonage house. The Church Road now known as Hastings Hillwent to the gate before turning north to join Mill Road. From at least the 12th century it had been a burial ground for Sarsden and Churchill and according to a petition "was almost full of bodies". In 1820 the parsonage land to the south was added and following a further petition in 1848, J H Langston sold the site of the parsonage house to the west of the old yard. This was consecrated on 20th September 1848.
The New Churchyard was given by Earl Ducie in 1886 and consecrated in 1939.