St Edmund and St Frideswide

Introduction

St Edmund and St Frideswide in Oxford is a Roman Catholic church built in 1910-11 by Father Benedict Williamson.

History

The church was built in 1910-11 by the Oxford Jesuit mission, succeeding St Ignatius' chapel in St Clement's (1793) as the principal site of Roman Catholic worship in east Oxford. The architect-priest Father Benedict Williamson (1868-1948) designed the church, and Hunt & Sons of High Wycombe were the builders. In 1928 responsibility for the church was transferred to the Capuchins. In 1954 an enclosed porch was formed under the north tower, allowing the east porch to be blocked up and converted into a chapel dedicated to the Mother of the Good Shepherd.

The chancel area was re-ordered in 1967 following the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The church is aligned north-south with a five-stage tower, angle buttresses and a clasping stair turret. To arrange a child's baptism, parents contact the parish priest.

Architecture and furnishings

The organ is a William Drake instrument built in 1981 for a private house and transferred to Greyfriars in 2001. A set of Stations of the Cross in opus sectile was installed in 1938 and reputedly designed by Father Benedict Williamson himself. A C13 stone capital, excavated from the site of the original Greyfriars in the city centre, forms a credence table. The three windows above the altar were installed in 1978 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Capuchin friary and depict St Edmund of Abingdon, St Agnellus of Pisa and St Frideswide of Oxford.

The church is built of knapped flint with red sandstone dressings and pantile roofs. The former east porch has an arched doorway of three orders, blocked up with flint work in which is set a circular relief of the Virgin and Child. The nave arcades comprise unmoulded semicircular arches springing from cylindrical columns with plain cushion capitals. Nave and chancel have open king-post roofs.

The chancel floor, originally almost level with the nave, was raised up by four steps in the 1967 reordering. The aisle windows are of c1960 and depict St Francis, St Anthony and St Clare. Elaborate wrought-iron screens, installed c1930, mark the entrances to the side chapels and the former porches. The east porch was converted in 1954 into a chapel dedicated to the Mother of the Good Shepherd, containing a painting attributed to Murillo set into a painted and gilded shrine.

The west porch is a baptistery and contains a square stone font. The wrought-iron screen in the baptistery contains baptismal symbols: the Holy Spirit descending amid a sunburst, a Greek text from Mark 1:8, and the symbols Alpha and Omega with the Latin phrase PORTA COELI. The chapels to left and right of the chancel are dedicated to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Pity; both are marble-lined, with stone altars and painted statues. The chancel fittings – lectern, altar, candlesticks and tabernacle – were reordered and remodelled in 1967. The tower contains a panelled organ gallery with a balustrade above.