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Welcome to the Church of St John the Evangelist MiltonMilton is part of the parish of Adderbury. In the mid-19th century the church was built as a “chapel of ease” to save parishioners from traveling to attend church services in Adderbury. St John's church continues to be an important place of worship and part of community life.
Vicar of Adderbury with Milton Reverend Liz simpson |
Address
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The Church of St John the Evangelist,
Milton Road, Milton, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX15 4HF Rev Liz Simpson Tel. 01295 810159 Email. addliz@outlook.com Milton is a village in the civil parish of Adderbury on the Milton road in between the villages of Adderbury and Bloxham. |
Church History
The small North Oxfordshire village of Milton lies midway between its two much larger neighbours, Adderbury and Bloxham. It appears as Midelton (ie “settlement in the middle”) in a charter roll of 1240. Until the 20th century its population was mainly engaged in farming, with a handful of people practising crafts such as shoe-making. From 1918 until the end of the 1920s ironstone was mined for smelting in an area north of the now dismantled railway line.
In the mid-19th century Milton was, as now, part of the parish of Adderbury, but the only place of worship in Milton itself was a building that had formerly been a dissenters’ chapel. Dissatisfaction with this building, now vanished, prompted the villagers to press the diocese to allow them to build a new church of their own (correctly known as a “chapel of ease” since it relieved parishioners from the inconvenience of having to travel to attend church services).
Local clergy assisted with the fund-raising, led by the Vicar of Adderbury who subscribed the then substantial sum of £350. The site was donated jointly by the Vicar of Adderbury and New College, Oxford (the latter as patron of the Adderbury living), with additional ground from Mr Parish of Hempton. The builders were Franklin & Hopcroft of Deddington, who carried out a great deal of work on churches in the area. The total cost was £1339, and the completed church, dedicated to St John the Evangelist, was consecrated on 16 November 1857.
The architect was London-based William Butterfield, famous for his ornate, multicoloured work at Keble College, Oxford. St John’s, Milton, is in a far simpler style and embodies the ideals of the Cambridge Camden Society, which was founded in 1839 and became the country’s leading authority on church architecture and furnishings through the middle years of the 19th century. Butterfield contributed many designs to the Society’s journal, and the Society in turn promoted Butterfield’s flourishing architectural practice.
A central tenet of the Cambridge Camden Society was that church architects needed to rediscover the principles of the heyday of English Gothic architecture in the period 1260 to 1360, which they called the “middle pointed” (late Early English/early Decorated) style. The clean, simple lines of the interior stonework and the window tracery make St John’s a textbook example of these principles.
The stained glass of the east window, depicting the Resurrection, was given by London barrister Richard William Iorns in memory of his father William (died 1873), who had been the most generous of the lay contributors to the church building fund. The same donor also gave the two-light south window, this one in memory of his mother (died 1896). Unusually, this shows St John next to his mother, St Salome. St John holds a cup with a little dragon emerging from it. This refers to the story that some pagan priests challenged him to drink a cup of poison; the saint made the sign of the Cross over it, which drew out the poison in the shape of a dragon, then safely drained the cup.
The church is built from the soft local orange-brown ironstone under a steeply pitched red-tiled roof. The oversize buttresses are a striking feature of the chunky central tower. Other original external features are the south porch, with its large decorative timbers, and the lychgate, which together form a harmonious approach to the entrance. The tower clock, inscribed MM, was installed in 2000 to commemorate the millennium.
The church remains as Butterfield planned it – a small, but significantly unspoilt gem of Victorian architecture.
In the mid-19th century Milton was, as now, part of the parish of Adderbury, but the only place of worship in Milton itself was a building that had formerly been a dissenters’ chapel. Dissatisfaction with this building, now vanished, prompted the villagers to press the diocese to allow them to build a new church of their own (correctly known as a “chapel of ease” since it relieved parishioners from the inconvenience of having to travel to attend church services).
Local clergy assisted with the fund-raising, led by the Vicar of Adderbury who subscribed the then substantial sum of £350. The site was donated jointly by the Vicar of Adderbury and New College, Oxford (the latter as patron of the Adderbury living), with additional ground from Mr Parish of Hempton. The builders were Franklin & Hopcroft of Deddington, who carried out a great deal of work on churches in the area. The total cost was £1339, and the completed church, dedicated to St John the Evangelist, was consecrated on 16 November 1857.
The architect was London-based William Butterfield, famous for his ornate, multicoloured work at Keble College, Oxford. St John’s, Milton, is in a far simpler style and embodies the ideals of the Cambridge Camden Society, which was founded in 1839 and became the country’s leading authority on church architecture and furnishings through the middle years of the 19th century. Butterfield contributed many designs to the Society’s journal, and the Society in turn promoted Butterfield’s flourishing architectural practice.
A central tenet of the Cambridge Camden Society was that church architects needed to rediscover the principles of the heyday of English Gothic architecture in the period 1260 to 1360, which they called the “middle pointed” (late Early English/early Decorated) style. The clean, simple lines of the interior stonework and the window tracery make St John’s a textbook example of these principles.
The stained glass of the east window, depicting the Resurrection, was given by London barrister Richard William Iorns in memory of his father William (died 1873), who had been the most generous of the lay contributors to the church building fund. The same donor also gave the two-light south window, this one in memory of his mother (died 1896). Unusually, this shows St John next to his mother, St Salome. St John holds a cup with a little dragon emerging from it. This refers to the story that some pagan priests challenged him to drink a cup of poison; the saint made the sign of the Cross over it, which drew out the poison in the shape of a dragon, then safely drained the cup.
The church is built from the soft local orange-brown ironstone under a steeply pitched red-tiled roof. The oversize buttresses are a striking feature of the chunky central tower. Other original external features are the south porch, with its large decorative timbers, and the lychgate, which together form a harmonious approach to the entrance. The tower clock, inscribed MM, was installed in 2000 to commemorate the millennium.
The church remains as Butterfield planned it – a small, but significantly unspoilt gem of Victorian architecture.
