The Divinity School in Oxford, built in 1427-1483, is now part of the Bodleian Library, with an unusual Greek inscription

A glimpse of the Divinity School beyond from the entrance to the Bodleian Library in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I have been blogging about the cathedral, churches and chapels in Oxford since I moved to this part of England almost five years. But no accounts of Church life in Oxford would be complete without taking account of the academic theology in Oxford, of the theological colleges that are found in Oxford, and of the Divinity School, which is integral to the story of the teaching of theology in Oxford over the past nine centuries or more, and which I have visited twice in recent weeks.

Tourists crowding into the Bodleian probably want to visit the Divinity School because it has been a location in many Harry Potter films, rather that its role in theological education and church history. But the study of theology and religion has been part and parcel of academic life in the University of Oxford since its origins in the 12th century, or even as early as 1096, which makes it the oldest university in the English-speaking world.

The Ashmolean Museum is the world’s oldest university museum, Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world, and Oxford has the largest academic library system nationwide. Early teaching was conducted by priests, the early curriculum focused on theology and canon law, reflecting its ecclesiastical roots, and most scholars were members of the clergy until the Reformation.

The entrance to the Divinity School … today it is part of the Bodleian Library and schools complex in the heart of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Regius Professorships of Divinity are among the oldest professorships at Oxford and Cambridge, and for a time there was third chair at Trinity College Dublin. The Oxford and Cambridge chairs were founded by Henry VIII, but the Divinity School is even older than those chairs. It is the oldest purpose-built teaching and examination room in the University of Oxford, and it was built in the Perpendicular Gothic style between 1427 and 1483. It was first built for lectures, oral exams and theological debates and later served as a meeting place for Parliament and the House of Commons.

Today the Divinity School is part of the Bodleian Library and schools complex on Broad Street and Radcliffe Square in Oxford, sitting directly beneath Duke Humfrey’s Library and linked to Convocation House.

When the Divinity School was being built in 1424-1490, the master-masons were Richard Winchcombe in 1429 and Thomas Elkyn in 1439. The upper storey was added by 1489 as Duke Humphrey’s Library. The elaborate stone-vaulted ceiling was designed by William Orchard in the 1480s. The ceiling has very elaborate lierne vaulting and is adorned with 455 carved bosses.

Duke Humfrey’s Library is on the first floor above the Divinity School … the upper storey was added by 1489 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The building is physically attached to the Bodleian Library, with Duke Humfrey’s Library on the first floor above, and it is opposite the Sheldonian Theatre where students matriculate and graduate. At the far end from the Bodleian Library entrance, a door leads to Convocation House, built in 1634-1637.

The building was restored and altered in 1598-1602. The whole building was partially restored, again using Headington stone, in 1660. William Byrd was paid for the insertion in 1669 of the north doorway designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The building was also repaired in 1701-1702.

All the buildings in Radcliffe Square form a group of the highest architectural importance at the heart of the University of Oxford. The west range of the complex, built in 1610-1612, contains the Arts End of the library on the upper storey and the Proscholium on the ground floor. The other three ranges were built in Headington freestone in 1613-1624, with John Akroyd and John and Michael Bently, being master-masons. The west cross-wing was built in 1634-1636 and its west window was rebuilt in 1877.

The tower at the Eastern Entrance has columns on each level representing the five orders of classical architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Extensive restorations were made in Clipsham stone in 1878-1885 to the upper storey, pinnacles and the whole tower of the Five Orders.

The Magnificent Tower forms the Eastern Entrance to the Schools Quadrangle and was built in 1613-1619. The columns on each level represent the five orders of classical architecture (from bottom): Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite.

Further refacing of the interior and of the quadrangle on the south were made in 1949. The upper storey forms the Sheldonoian Theatre end of the library and the lower storey contains the Convocation House and the Chancellor’s Court.

The Greek text in the arch above Sir Christopher Wren’s 1669 doorway … ‘they found him [in the temple], sitting among the teachers’ (Photograph: Hybrid Magazine/Greek City Times)

A Greek text carved onto a stone ‘open book’ on the soffit of the arch above Sir Christopher Wren’s 1669 doorway on the north side of the Divinity School, facing the Sheldonian Theatre, is said by some sources to be the only Greek inscription in Oxford, although there is a Greek insciption abover the west door of the chapel in Somerville College. The inscription at the Wren door in the Divinity School reads: εὗρον αὐτὸν καθεζόμενον ἐν μέσῳ τῶν διδασκάλων, an abbreviated form of: εὗρον αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ καθεζόμενον ἐν μέσῳ τῶν διδασκάλων, ‘they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers’ (Luke 2: 46), a reference to Jesus at the age of 12 debating with the doctors or teachers in the Temple in Jerusalem.

I went back to the Divinity School yesterday to see that Greek quotation. Despite its abbreviated form and with idiosyncratic lettering, is apposite given the building’s original function in teaching theology. The words were added during structural renovations in 1669, when a beautiful window was removed from the Divinity School amid controversy to build a new doorway designed by Christopher Wren, intended for academic processions.

The Vice-Chancellor’s accounts for 1666-1697 document renovations that included Wren’s doorway in 1669. However, despite detailed records of the doorway’s construction, there is no record of who requested the Greek inscription, who provided it or why it was placed there.

The Sir Thomas Bodley plaque above the doors leading into the Divinity School and Bodleian complex has a plaque with the Latin inscription: Quod feliciter vortat (‘May it turn out happily’), a wish for good fortune for the library.

The bronze statue of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, is often mistakenly identified as King Charles I (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Above the middle doorway on the north face is a panel with an elaborate coat-of-arms for the Earl of Pembroke, including a colourful shield, garter, helm, mantling, motto and two leopards as heraldic supporters. A second panel above has the painted inscription: Guil. Herbert Pembrochiæ comes, Regii hospitii Camerarius, honoratissimus Academiæ Cancellarius.

The prominent bronze statue standing in the Old Schools Quadrangle facing the Divinity School and the entrance of the Bodleian Library is often mistaken for King Charles I, but is actually a statue of William Herbert (1580-1630), 3rd Earl of Pembroke and Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1617 until he died.

The sculptor Hubert Le Sueur also sculpted the equestrian statue of Charles I in London. The statue is cast in bronze, and weighs about 1,600 lb. It was originally placed at Wilton House, the family seat of the Earls of Pembroke, until it was moved to the Bodleian Library in 1723. It was moved to its current outdoor position in 1950.

Despite this mistaken identity, Charles I had links with this part of Oxford: he used the Convocation House and the Divinity School as a meeting place for his parliament during the English Civil War, and there are busts of him in Saint John’s College.

The elaborate coat-of-arms of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Chancellor of Oxford University (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Divinity School is no longer used for its original purposes, but Oxford continues to offer degrees in Theology and Religion taught by the Faculty of Theology and Religion. The Faculty of Theology and Religion is housed in the state-of-the-art Schwarzman Centre at the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter on Woodstock Road and spans Oxford’s many colleges and private halls. The faculty brings together more than 120 members with expertise in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other world religions, as well as in comparative, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to the study of religion.

The statutory professorships in theology in Oxford are held in conjunction with a canonry of Christ Church. The professor must be an ordained priest in the Church of England or in an Anglican church in communion with the Church of England, or eligible for and accept ordination. These positions are: Regius Professor of Divinity (Andrew Davison), Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity (Carol Harrison), Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology (vacant, previously Nigel Biggar), and Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History (vacant).

The other professors of theology include the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, Dean Ireland’s Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion; Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, Professor of Systematic Theology and Professor of Jewish Studies.

The Revd Dr Francis Babington, who was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity from 1561, was a first cousin once removed Henry Comberford, Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral, and Richard Comberford, often said, confusingly, to be the direct ancestor of the Comerford family of Kilkenny and Wexford. Babington was also Proctor of Oxford University (1557), a Fellow of All Souls College, Rector of Milton Keynes, Master of Balliol College (1559-1560), Rector of Lincoln College (1560-1563), and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1560-1562). He survived much of the Tudor Reformation and Marian turmoils, but who was finally forced out of office and into exile in 1565, during the reign of Elizabeth I.

The Divinity School appeared as the Hogwarts Infirmary in several Harry Potter films. It is open for self-guided visitor tours, special exhibitions, university events and for weddings.

As for the Greek inscription above the chapel door in Somerville College, that, hopefully, is a story for another day.

All the buildings in Radcliffe Square form a group of the highest architectural importance at the heart of the University of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to churches, chapels and religious buildings and sites in Oxford, visit here

A journey back to Narnia, visiting the grave and home of CS Lewis in Headington and his links with Oxford

The grave of CS Lewis and his brother Warnie Lewis in the churchyard at Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During two recent visits to Headington in Oxford, I visited some of the churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Headington Baptist Church, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston.

In a posting on Sunday afternoon,I also described visiting Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, which is known particularly for its associations with the Belfast-born writer CS Lewis (1898-1963), who lived and worked for most of his life in Oxford, and who was a regular parishioner in Holy Trinity Church for more than 30 years.

As I walked around Headington I found more associations with CS Lewis, including The Kilns, the house where he lived on a street off Kiln Lane now known as Lewis Court, the CS Lewis Nature Reserve, and the house in Headington where his wife Joy Davidman once lived.

CS Lewis was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, for almost 30 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In the past, I have introduced a tutorial group to CS Lewis and his spirituality, written about him for American magazines to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, listened to lectures in Cambridge by Metropolitan Kallistos on the meaning of love in the writings of CS Lewis, visited churches and houses in Belfast that were part of his childhood, and visited places in Oxford associated with academic life and his work as a writer.

The Belfast-born writer, Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) is known for his literary criticism, children’s literature, fantasy literature and, essays, as well as his works in theology and as a Christian apologist. His great works include Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, The Four Loves and Surprised by Joy.

CS Lewis was an undergraduate at at University College, Oxford, then taught as a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, for almost 30 years, from 1925 to 1954. He met JRR Tolkien for the first time 100 years ago, on 11 May 1926. They remained lifelong friends and key figures in the Inklings, the literary group that meet each week in the Eagle and Child on St Giles in Oxford, and Tolkien was influential in his decision to return to Christianity and the Anglicanism of his birth.

In 1954, he moved from Oxford to Cambridge as the first Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance English and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. But he never had the same impact on Cambridge as he had on Oxford.

Joy Davidman Gresham was living at 10 Old High Street, Headington, when she married CS Lewis 70 years ago in 1956 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Lewis married the American writer Joy Davidman Gresham, then living at 10 Old High Street, Headington. She was 17 years his junior and they were married 70 years ago at the register office, 42 St Giles, Oxford, on 23 April 1956. Their friend, the Revd Peter Bide, provided a church blessing at her bed in the Churchill Hospital on 21 March 1957, despite a decree by Harry Carpenter, Bishop of Oxford, that the Church’s prohibition of remarriage for divorcees should be upheld in his diocese. Joy she moved into his home, The Kilns, in Headington in April 1957.

The couple had a brief holiday in Greece and the Aegean shortly before she died of cancer at the age of 45 on 13 July 1960. In A Grief Observed, Lewis describes his experience of bereavement in a raw and deeply personal way.

While Lewis attended the chapel in Magdalen College during the week, he never attended Choral Evensong there and went to the early Sunday morning service in his local parish church, Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, probably from some time in 1930. The Kilns, his home from 1930, is a ten-minute walk from the church. He took communion for the first since he was a boy at Holy Trinity Church on Christmas Day 1931.

Lewis Close leads to The Kilns, where CS Lewis lived from 1930 and to the CS Lewis Nature Reserve (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

He had a lifelong dislike of organ music and preferred to attend the 8 am said Communion service. Sunday after Sunday, for more than 30 years, he sat in the same pew, close to a pillar where he could observe the service but was shielded from the view of other people in the congregation.

On 15 July 1940, having been unwell, he decided to have a lie-in and attend the 11 am service instead. He did not get on particularly well with the vicar of that time and found his sermons tedious. On that Sunday his mind started to wander, but his wandering was productive: during the sermon and as he walked back to The Kilns, the concept and outline for The Screwtape Letters was almost completely formed in his mind.

Lewis died three years after Joy, on 22 November 1963, a week before his 65th birthday, and is buried in the churchyard in the churchyard in Headington.

The Narnia window in the north aisle of Holy Trinity Chuurch, Headington, was dedicated in 1991 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

CS Lewis was a regular parishioner in Holy Trinity for more than four decades and is commemorated in the Narnia window in the north aisle and also has a simple grave is in the churchyard. CS Lewis and his brother Warren Lewis began attending the church in 1930 and remained active in the church until their deaths, CS Lewis in 1963 and WH Lewis in 1973.

The Narnia window in the north aisle by Sally Scott in the north includes images from CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and was installed in 1991.

The window depicts the Garden of Eden as CS Lewis described it: a landscape of talking animals, speaking trees, courage and kindness, shot through with the light from outside and physically very accessible. Above, the lantern in the trefoil, the holy dove seems to shed peace on all that happens below.

The Narnia window was created as a memorial at once to the writer who sat in the pew by the window, and a bequest in remembrance of two local children who are buried in the churchyard. The Howe Bequest was made by George and Kathleen Howe, lived at Grovelands Road in Risinghurst, close to the Lewis brothers, as a memorial to their children, William George Howe (1938-1954) and Gillian Margaret Howe (1945-1947).

The artist and sculptural glass engraver Sally Scott was commissioned to create the window. After receiving the Narnia brief, she reread the books and drew inspiration too from the clear-glass engraved doors of Coventry Cathedral, and. Because the window is at eye level, she could fill her pictures with activity at a scale that is right for children.

The images include: Aslan, the great lion and creator, from whose mane streams light; two boys on a flying horse; a small girl flying on a talking owl; a and the castle Cair Paravel, which became the seat of good government on earth. Below are the heads of a unicorn, a bearded dwarf, an antlered stag, a mouse and a small bird. Along the bottom are the magic gifts made to the children by Aslan: a bottle of healing elixir, a sword and shield, bow and arrow, and the horn that summons divine help.

The top corners display the coat of arms of John Williams, Lord Williams of Thame, who founded Lord Williams’s School, where Willie was at school when he died. Three local children modelled the Narnia children and the window was dedicated on 2 July 1991.

CS Lewis died at his home, The Kilns, on 22 November 1963 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

CS Lewis died at his home, The Kilns, on 22 November 1963, the same day as the assassination of John F Kennedy. He was buried a few days later in the churchyard at Holy Trinity, the parish church he had attended for many years. Many of his friends and colleagues were unaware of his death and his funeral. JRR Tolkien was one of only 30 or so people at his funeral.

His brother Warren Hamilton Lewis, who died on 9 April 1973, is was buried in the same grave. The grave is marked by a modest headstone, their names, dates of birth and death, and a brief inscription. The epitaph, chosen by his Warren Hamilton Lewis, is from Shakespeare’s King Lear: ‘Men must endure their going hence.’ This quotation was the quotation on the family calendar the day their mother died, 23 August 1908.

Other graves in the churchyard include those of Mrs Janie Moore, the ‘adopted mother’, of CS Lewis, who died on 12 January 1951; William Kimber, the ‘father of English Morris’ as his gravestone describes him; and six war graves of soldiers from World War I.

The former register office at 42 St Giles, where CS Lewis and Joy Davidman married 70 years ago, is now a private dental practice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Kilns on Lewis Close is a short walk from Holy Trinity Church, and I retraced the route CS Lewis may have walked back home that Sunday morning in 1940 as he developed the concept and outline for The Screwtape Letters in his mind.

The bus from Headington back into Oxford brought me past Magdalen College where he had been a fellow for much of his life.

On St Giles, the former register office at No 42, where CS Lewis and Joy Davidman were married 70 years ago, is now a private dental practice.

The Eagle and Child at 49 St Giles, where Lewis, Tolkien and the Inklings met regularly, has long been covered in cladding and scaffolding, with promises from the developers that it will reopen some time in 2027.

The Eagle and Child, where the Inklings once met regularly, is covered in cladding and scaffolding (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to churches, chapels and religious buildings and sites in Oxford, visit here

Holy Trinity Church, a Gothic church in Headington Quarry, Oxford, designed by Gilbert Scott and with links with CS Lewis

Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford, was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and was built in 1848-1849 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During two recent visits to Headington in Oxford, I visited some of the churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Headington Baptist Church, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston.

But, perhaps, the best-known church in the area is Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, known particularly for its associations with the Belfast-born writer CS Lewis (1898-1963), who lived and worked for most of his life in Oxford, and who was a regular parishioner in Holy Trinity Church for more than 30 years.

Inside Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At first sight, Holy Trinity Church may look like a mediaeval church. But, in fact, it only dates back less than 200 years to April 1849. It is built in the 15th century decorated style, with a nave, north aisle, south porch, and a gable bell-cote with two bells at the west end.

The church was designed by the prolific Gothic Revival architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), who is known for designing, building and renovating churches and cathedrals in the Gothic style. He was born in Gawcott, on the outskirts of Buckingham, and designed he Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, the Albert Memorial, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, Glasgow University, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, and King’s College Chapel, London. His work in Oxford includes the Martyrs’ Memorial and Exeter College Chapel.

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, was built in 1848-1849 to serve the needs of people living and working in the then-active quarry.

Inside Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, looking west from the chancel and east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford (1845-1869), was instrumental in getting the church built in Quarry, which he described in a sermon on 9 June 1847 as a ‘hamlet’ in a ‘wild, rural district’. He claimed Headington Quarry had been ‘long cursed by the neighbourhood of Oxford vice’ and said its ‘peculiar circumstances’ demanded ‘the sympathy and assistance of … Christian neighbours’.

Early subscriptions towards building the church included £50 from Charles Tawney, who also gave the site for Headington National School. There were large donations too from the Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood, Vicar of Saint Andrew’s, Headington, and Lord of the Manor of Headington (£25); John Matthews of Headington Manor House (£21); George Ballachey of Bury Knowle House (£20); and Digby Latimer of Headington House (£20).

Other contributors included the heads of Worcester College, University College, New College, Queen’s College, Trinity College, All Souls’ College and Exeter College, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, and the Revd Edward Pusey. Later subscribers included Magdalen College (£200) and Queen Victoria (£20), as well as Oriel College, Brasenose College, Corpus Christi College, Lincoln College, Merton College, Wadham College and Worcester College.

The stone was quarried from Quarry Farm Pit, and the contractors were Wyatt’s of Oxford.

The chancel, High Altar and East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Bishop Samuel Wilberforce laid the foundation stone of the church on 19 June 1848, and consecrated the new church on 22 November 1849. The first Vicar was the Revd Thomas Masterman in 1849-1851. The vicarage house at 42 Quarry Road was built in 1868 for the Revd Arthur Dalton. It was designed by the architect Arthur Blomfield, who designed Saint Barnabas’s Church, Jericho, the following year. The vicarage was converted into flats in 1992.

Holy Trinity Church is a Grade II listed building, with a nave that includes an east window by Sir Ninian Comper, a chancel, a north aisle with the Lady Chapel, a large double bellcote and diagonal buttresses. It is built in coursed rubble limestone with ashlar detailing and stone locally quarried at Quarry Farm Pit, and has red tile roofs.

There are two-light, three-light and lancet windows and a tall south-west porch with two windows. The low north aisle has squat, square-headed windows in a late mediaeval style.

The East Window designed by Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) depicts Christ in Glory and was installed in 1951 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Inside, the chancel is the same height as the nave, there is a stone arcade, a chancel arch, and a stone pulpit and font, with plain benches in the nave and aisle. Above the altar, the East Window was designed by Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) and depicts Christ in Glory. The window was installed in 1951 as a memorial to parishioners who died in World War II.

The symbol at the top of the East Window is that of the Holy Trinity with the heraldic symbols of the Diocese of Oxford and the Oxford industrialist Lord Nuffield below. Comper’s distinguishing strawberry mark is in the bottom right-hand corner of the window.

The first piece of stained glass in the church, a window depicting the Crucifixion, was placed in the East Window by the Revd Arthur Dalton, vicar of the parish in 1867-1870. The centrepiece has since been installed in the Lady Chapel.

The tapestry behind the altar was designed by Father Elias Polomski and is inspired by Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church was refurbished and redecorated in the early 1990s, at the initiative of the vicar, the Revd Christopher Hewetson. The altar area and the chancel were remodelled, when the old curtain that hung in front of the east window was swept away, the stone work was cleaned, much of the floor was renewed, new lighting was installed, and the bosses were regilded. Two clergy stalls were added, and the roof was boarded because of the decay of the original plaster.

At the same time, the altar was moved from the east wall in the chancel, allowing west-facing celebrations of the Eucharist.

During the refurbishment and redecoration, old and decaying curtains were removed, and a new tapestry was hung behind the altar in 1994. It was designed by Father Elias Polomski, curate of the parish in 1990-1994. It is inspired by Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity and depicts the three angels who visited Abraham in Genesis 18. The other panels of the tapestry depict the rocks, oak trees and ponds of Shotover, to the east of the parish, with a scattering of Greek long-necked sheep.

It took volunteers from the parish over 2,000 hours and two years to complete the tapestry. The completed tapestry was dedicated by the Bishop of Oxford on 17 July 1994.

The chancel window depicting Saint Andrew and Saint Philip confuses the Gospel scenes associated with each saint (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The chancel two-light window depicting Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Headington, and Saint Philip, are in memory of a former vicar, the Revd Philip Doyne (1916-1924). But the windows were assembled incorrectly in the workshop, so that each saint has the Gospel scene associated with the other.

The chancel organ was built by Kenneth Tickell of Northampton and was installed in 1992. The colours and pipe shades were also designed by Father Elias Polomski.

The chancel also has a credence table in memory of a former vicar, the Revd Eric Bleiben, and a piscina in memory of a former sacristan, Anne Kimber.

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle was added in the 1990s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle was added in the 1990s as a memorial to the Revd Ronald Heald, vicar in 1956-1990. The altar and chairs were also designed by Father Elias Polomski and made by Hugh Croft of Devon. Other furnishings include the carpet, chandelier, icon from Athens, and an antique Persian lamp and chain.

The Athens icon was bought by Father Charles Smith of Corpus Christi Church when he was in Athens in May 1994 for the Greek Orthodox Easter. The Trinity icon was a gift from Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Georgian Baptist Church, who had studied in Oxford, and was blessed by him on Trinity Sunday 2010. The statue of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child is a copy of a French Gothic statue in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The iconof the Theotokos was bought in Athens in May 1994 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The stained glass by the pulpit depicts the Archangel Gabriel and was installed in 1910 in memory of the Revd Charles Longland, who died in 1908 and his daughter Mary Elizabeth who had died in her teens. The scroll has Gothic script with the words ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son’ (John 3:16).

The Baptistry window shows the Holy Spirit descending on the font. It was installed in 1916 in memory of Kate Johnston, wife of the Revd Charles Johnston (Vicar in 1891-1916).

The Narnia window in the north aisle by Sally Scott in the north aisle includes images from CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and was installed in 1991.

The vestry, which is a 20th century addition, is single-storeyed with a flat roof and extends north from the east end of the aisle.

The Narnia window by Sally Scott in the north aisle was installed in 1991 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, is still remembered today for its associations with the writer CS Lewis, who was a regular parishioner for more than three decades. He is commemorated in the Narnia window and in his simple grave is in the churchyard. CS Lewis and his brother Warren Lewis, began attending the church in 1930 and remained active in this church until their deaths, CS Lewis in 1963 and WH Lewis in 1973. But more about CS Lewis and Headington Quarry in the days to come, hopefully.

• The Revd Martin Little is the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry. Sunday services are 8 am, Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer); 10 am, Parish Communion; 6 pm, evening service once a month, varying from Choral Evensong to seasonal celebrations, to informal worship. Midweek services include Holy Communion at 10 am, Wednesday, and Morning Prayer at 9 am, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, was built in the 15th century decorated style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to churches, chapels and religious buildings and sites in Oxford, visit here

A walk down memory lane along Jack Straw’s Lane in Oxford, looking for signs of a long-gone youth hostel

Jack Straw’s Lane in Headington still has a semi-rural, almost rustic, feeling to it (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Headington in Oxford twice last week, with an appointment for an ECG in John Radcliffe Hospital, and taking time to visit many of the churches in the Headington area and to explore some of the literary links in the area with CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.

But there was a sentimental reason or a search for memories too during those visits. After I left school in 1969, I spent many weekends and much of my holiday time in my late teens hitchhiking around Ireland and England, usually staying in youth hostels. Some of the youth hostels in England I remember well were in Chester, Lichfield, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford-on-Avon, Shrewsbury and London, and at Ilam Hall in Derbyshire and Wilderhope Manor in Shropshire.

I remember the youth hostel in Oxford because it was in Cowley House on Jack Straw’s Lane. In those days, youth hostelers could stay in any one hostel for no more than three nights and were expected at hostels run by An Oige and the YHA to arrive on foot or on bicycles. It seemed that among seasoned youth hostelers it was déclassé to be seen to arrive in a car, even a car one had hitched a lift in, and probably even to arrive by bus.

And so I remember arriving at the youth hostel in Oxford late in the afternoon on foot, and leaving again to enjoy an evening out in Oxford or setting out in the morning to explore the city, walking down Jack Straw’s Lane, with its peculiar name, and catching a bus into Oxford at the corner of Marston Road.

I retraced those youthful steps taken over 55 years ago last week when I walked from Headington down the hill along Jack Straw’s Hill, wondering whether I could recognise Cowley House, the former youth hostel where I stayed when I first visited Oxford in my late teens back around 1969 or 1970.

Jack Straw’s Lane is a residential road in suburban Oxford, but still has a rural, almost rustic, atmosphere to it, despite its proximity to the centre of Oxford. It runs from the north end of Pullens Lane on Headington Hill down to Marston Road.

That part of Headington was still in the parish of Saint Andrew’s Church until the 20th century, and the lands of the Lords of the Manor of Headington included the whole of Jack Straw’s Lane. Until well into the 20th century, the lane had no name. It was originally a track at the end of Pullen’s Lane that led to Jack Straw’s farmhouse or Jack Straw’s Castle. The name of the road only dates from about 1932, and was not officially adopted until 1954.

Cowley House on Jack Straw’s Lane opened as Oxford Youth Hostel 90 years ago in 1936 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

When I stayed at the youth hostel, Jack Straw was already well-known and the elected as President of the National Union of Students from 1969 to 1971, and he went on to become a prominent Labour politician and cabinet minister. But he was not the Jack Straw who gave his name of Jack Straw Lane.

Tradition says the Jack Straw of the lane had been a farmer who lived on Headington Hill. Although many highwaymen were active in the area, they had no one leader. But the story goes that when Jack Straw died, the cellars beneath his kitchen were found to have rolls of silk, gold, silver, spices and other valuable goods that had been stolen from travellers and merchants. Yet, no one named Jack Straw was ever buried at Saint Andrew’s Church.

By 1850, Jack Straw’s Castle and farmland were owned by the Lord of the Manor of Headington and leased to John Plowman, who also leased the brickyard on Marston Road and owned another house near the Britannia in central Headington.

Plowman was an architect who had lived in St Peter-in-the-East parish in Oxford, and he was a brickyard-owner rather than a farmer. By 1861, Jack Straw’s Farm covered 105 acres in Old Headington John Plowman was a farmer living in ‘Jack Straw’s Castle’ and employing five men and a boy. His son-in-law Joseph Jones Bickerton was the Town Clerk of Oxford.

The Ordnance Survey map in 1876 shows only three buildings pn Jack Straw’s Lane, with Jack Straw’s Farmhouse, popularly known as Jack Straw’s Castle, towards the north-west. The Plowman family left around 1879, and the castle was let as a private house and the land was farmed separately. The castle was renamed as Belle Vue Lodge. The Revd Charles Morris, the Vicar of Marston, lived there from 1893 until he died in 1899.

The house was known once more as Jack Straw’s Castle by 1901. Ten years later, in 1911, all the land to the north and east of Jack Straw’s Lane, including the farm, the brickworks, and six cottages on Marston Road were sold at auction. The site of Jack Straw’s Castle and Hillside is now occupied by the Rectory Homes development at No 35-43.

The former youth hostel on Jack Straw’s Lane is now a nursery for the children of university staff and children (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Cowley House and the adjoining Cowley Cottage were built on the south side of the lane in 1898. Cowley House was built in about 1898. It was occupied by Hugh Hall from 1899 to 1902, a Mrs Valpy lived there from 1903 to 1907, and Miss Michaelson from 1909 to after 1929.

YHA Oxford Regional Group was formed in the very early days of the Association, in December 1931. Cowley House on Jack Straw’s Lane in Headington had been unoccupied for four years when it was bought for £2,100 by the YHA. It opened as Oxford Youth Hostel on Maundy Thursday, 9 April 1936, with grants from the Carnegie Trust and the Cadbury Trust, and gifts of furniture from Jesus College.

A new annexe was completed in 1939, when the accommodation increased to 98. But the youth hostel was unavailable during World War II and was used as a school. To compensate for the wartime requisition a temporary summer hostel opened in a building on the corner of Mansfield Road and Holywell Street belonging to Manchester College.

The original hotels was returned to the YHA in June 1945 and reopened on 2 January 1946. For decades, it was one of the most popular youth hostels in England, often needing extra accommodation in temporary seasonal hostels in public or educational buildings that were loaned or hired.

The youth hostel on Jack Straw’s Lane eventually closed on 14 May 2001 when a purpose-built hostel opened on Botley Road near the railway station.

Bryant Homes planned to demolish the former youth hostel on Jack Straw’s Lane and replace it with flats in 2001, but this proposal was rejected. A year later, St Hilda’s College hoped to turn the building into flats in In 2002. But eventually it was converted into the college nursery, run by Kids Unlimited. It was renamed Dorothea Beale House after one of the college’s two founders, and its address is now 32B Jack Straw’s Lane.

Field House, to the right of Dorothea Beale House, was built in the late 1920s. It was designed by the architect Herbert Luck North (1871–1941), who had formerly been an assistant to Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Other houses on the lane include Hillside, now 69 Jack Straw’s Lane, was once the home of Henry Habberley Price (1899-1984), who was Wykeham Professor of Logic.

The Milham Ford School opened on a 16-acre site at Jack Straw’s Lane in 1938, and later became a maintained grammar school for girls then a girls’ comprehensive. The school closed in 2003, it was sold and became the site of the School of Health Care of Oxford Brookes University.

Today, Jack Straw’s Lane is a residential area with high-priced houses and lined with large mature trees. The former youth hostel is now Kids Planet, an exclusive nursery for staff and students at the University of Oxford.

I continued on down Jack Straw’s Lane that afternoon last week and visited Saint Michael and All Angels Church on the corner of Marston Road, before catching a bus back into the centre of Oxford.

Jack Straw’s Lane leads from Headington to New Marston in suburban East Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston: a 1950s church in suburban Oxford with important works of modern art

The Church of Saint Michael and All Angels on the corner of Jack Straw’s Lane and Marston Road, Oxford … today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Michael and All Angels (29 September), and in anticipation of this feast day, I visited the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels in New Marston in suburban Oxford last week when I was visiting churches in the Headington area last week.

During my two visits to Headington last week, and in between appointments in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, I visited some of the churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Headington Baptist Church, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston.

I found Saint Michael’s Church, which was built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, at the bottom of Jack Straw’s Lane on the corner with Marston Road.

Inside Saint Michael and All Angels Church, New Marston, facing the High Altar, chancel and east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

New Marston is a suburb about 2 km (1.25 miles) north-east of the centre of Oxford. The area is built on land that was originally part of the Manor of Headington, and it was rural until the 19th century, when housing began to develop along Marston Road from St Clement’s towards the village of Marston.

Saint Michael and All Angels Church was built 70 years ago in 1954-1956 on the corner of Marston Road and Jack Straw’s Lane as a chapel of ease for the parish of Saint Andrew, Headington. New Marston’s early Anglican needs were first met by a mission hall built on Ferry Road in 1919 until the new church was consecrated in September 1955.

Saint Michael and All Angels Church was designed in an Italianate style by the architect Thomas Lawrence Dale (1884-1959), who was the Oxford Diocesan Surveyor for 23 years. At first, Dale specialised in designing houses for private clients. From the 1930s, he was the Oxford Diocesan Surveyor and he was noted for designing, restoring and furnishing Church of England parish churches.

Like Charles Ponting (1850-1932) to whom he had been articled, Dale’s church architecture was strongly Anglo-Catholic. However, whereas Ponting continued to work in the Gothic Revival idiom long after it had passed out of fashion, Dale adopted Italianate architecture for his churches.

Inside Saint Michael and All Angels Church, New Marston, facing the west end … the church was designed in an Italianate style by the architect Thomas Lawrence Dale (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dale was born in London and was educated at University College School, Hampstead. He began trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1900, was articled to Charles Ponting in Marlborough, Wiltshire (1901-1904), was assistant to the architect Edmund Buckle (1904-1906), and qualified as an architect in 1906.

He was a captain in the Army Cyclist Corps during World War I and was mentioned in despatches. After World War I, Dale moved to Banbury and designed a series of council houses in several villages. Two of his earlier works are Edwardian houses in Hampstead Garden Suburb, one of which has been described as ‘an excellent house of the Lutyens school’. Dale later moved to Oxford, where he designed his own house on Woodstock Road, and later moved again to Bradmore Road.

As Oxford Diocesan Surveyor, Dale designed at least four parish churches in the Oxford area, and also designed restoration work or new furnishings for a number of parish churches. His churches in the Diocese of Oxford include: Saint Francis of Assisi (1930-1931), Cowley, built on a site provided by Morris Motors as a temporary daughter church of Saint James, Cowley; Saint Alban the Martyr (1933), Oxford, replacing a chapel of ease built for Saint Mary and Saint John Church in 1889; Saint Michael and All Angels (1954-1956), New Marston, built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington; and Saint Swithun (1956-1958), Kennington.

The sculpted reliefs on the main front include a small figure of Saint Michael and two large reliefs of angels, by John Bunting and Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dale died in 1959 and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. His son Simon Dale (1919-1987) was also an architect. He was beaten to death at The Heath, the house he and Susan had restored at Hopton Castle, Herefordshire.

The only suspect, Dale’s former wife, Baroness Susan de Stempel, was cleared of his murder due to insufficient physical evidence. The case remains ‘one of West Mercia Constabulary’s relatively few unsolved murders’. But that’s a story for another evening, perhaps.

TL Dale’s churches reflect the various brands of classicism popular in church architecture in England in the mid-20th century and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston, is perhaps his most ambitious. It is an interesting essay in a sort of stripped Italian baroque manner, typical of Anglo-Catholic taste from the 1920s on.

The statue of Saint Michael by the sculptor Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Michael’s was built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington. Although the building is slightly limited by its corner site, it is substantial in scale and has been described as being in a ‘vaguely Italian renaissance style’. Its notable features include its campanile, its elliptical windows and its tall, box-like chancel.

The sculpted reliefs on the main front include a small figure of Saint Michael in a niche at the top of the gable, and two large reliefs of angels flanking the oval window, by John Bunting (1927-2002) and Michael Groser (1918-2009). The Latin wording above the west door says: Gloria in Altissimis Deo et in Terra Pax (‘Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace’).

Bunting and Groser were probably responsible for the carvings inside the church, including a suspended rood with the Crucified Christ flanked by figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John, the frontal to the altar and the Stations of the Cross. The statue of Saint Michael is by Groser, the painting of the Annunciation and a series of reliefs are by Bunting, and the reredos above the High Altar was painted by Leon Underwood (1890-1975).

The suspended rood, with figures of the Crucified Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint John, is by John Bunting and Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

John Bunting was one of Leon Underwood’s students. He later taught for many decades at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, where his students included Antony Gormley, creator of the ‘Angel of the North’, Martin Jennings, whose works include the statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras station and the statue of Philip Larkin in Hull, and the painter Andrew Festing.

Michael Groser was born in his grandfather’s rectory in St Winnow, Cornwall. His father, the Revd St John Beverley Groser (1890-1966), was an Anglican priest and a prominent Christian socialist. He was said to be ‘the best-known priest in the East End’ and Kenneth Leech said that he was ‘one of the most significant Christian socialist figures in 20th century Britain’. He was present at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. He was appointed the Warden of the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in 1948. He played Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 1951 film adaptation of TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, produced and directed by George Hoellering.

Michael Groser moved to London with his parents in the 1920s and attended the Mercers’ School. After a degree in English Literature at Leeds University, he studied for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, Yorkshire, where his father had once been a student. As a conscientious objector during World War II, he was sent to a coalmine near Huddersfield, but managed to study sculpture part-time at Leeds School of Art.

He later moved to Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, and then to Banbury, and sang occasionally with the choir at New College, Oxford. As an actor, he played the Third Priest in Murder in the Cathedral (1951), alongside his father. He moved to Co Cork in 2004, and when he died in Bantry in 2009, he was buried at Church Cross, near Skibbereen.

The painting of the Annunciation by John Bunting above the altar in the Lady Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Michael's Church, New Marston, was consecrated in September 1955 and superseded the Ferry Road mission hall, which was then deconsecrated and sold for secular use.

Saint Michael’s became a parish church in its own right in the Diocese of Oxford in 1963, with a new parish formed from parts of Headington, Marston and Saint Clement’s parishes.

The church built by Kingerlee & Sons. The ground for the new vicarage in Jack Straw’s Lane was bought in 1952, but the vicarage was not built until 1966-1967.

In recent years, a problem with subsidence has left the church needing extensive repairs and when I visited the church last week much of the south side of the building was covered in scaffolding.

The campanile at the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• The Revd Elaine Bardwell has been the Vicar of Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston since 1996. Saint Michael’s uses modern Catholic worship and has a smallish congregation that welcomes all comers. The main Sunday service is the Parish Eucharist at 10 am, and there is a short said Eucharist on Wednesday mornings at 10:30 am.

The tall, box-like chancel and south side of Saint Michael’s Church seen from Jack Straw’s Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to churches, chapels and religious buildings and sites in Oxford, visit here

Two contrasting churches in Headington, Baptist and Catholic, illustrate church diversity in Oxford

Headington Baptist Church is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the present building this year, but the church dates back to early 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During my visits to Headington in Oxford last week, in between visits to the John Radcliffe Hospital, I visited a number of churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston, Headington Baptist Church and Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

Headington Baptist Church is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the present building later this year. But the story of the congregation dates back to the early 19th century, when New Road Baptist Church in Oxford started one of its first ‘mission stations’ for dissenters in Old Headington. This means the Baptist Chapel was the first nonconformist chapel in Headington, until a Methodist chapel was built in Trinity Road, Quarry, in 1830.

Headington’s first purpose-built Baptist chapel opened 1836 in what is now a private house known as Croft Hall. Croft Hall stood on land owned by the Latimer family, then the lords of the Manor of Headington and the owners of Headington House, and the freehold was acquired in 1841.

The chapel acquired more land In 1875 to extend its burial ground. However, the chapel was no longer big enough by the end of the 19th century, and the Baptists built a new chapel in Old High Street in 1901.

The cottage to the south of the new chapel was demolished in 1916, and two years later the vacant plot was bought by the Baptist Chapel. Most of the male members of the congregation were then away at war, and women and children helped to clear the site to grow vegetables. The site was to remain a vegetable plot for 16 years.

After World War I, a war memorial organ by Martin & Coate of Oxford was installed in the church in 1920.

The chapel was extended for the first time In 1934 over part of the vegetable plot, and the rest of the plot was turned into a garden. The garden was lost In 1971 when the church was extended again, and the new enlarged church was used for another 23 years until 2004.

The old church was demolished in August 2004 and the first service in the new church took place 20 years ago, on Sunday 5 November 2006.

The Baptist Church continued to own the old chapel in the Croft until the mid-1970s. Initially it was used as a Sunday school, but this was closed in 1924 because the building had fallen into disrepair.

The Freemasons offered to refurbish the building in 1937 as part of a leasing arrangement, and the continued to use the building until 1944. After that, the Exclusive Brethren used the building, and it was then used by a carpet shop. Croft Hall was sold in 1976 and has been converted into a private house.

Corpus Christi Church on the corner of Margaret Road, was built in two phases, beginning 90 years ago in 1936 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Corpus Christi Church on the corner of Margaret Road and Wharton Road in Headington was built in two stages in the 1930s and 1950s. The first Mass in Headington was said by Father Fabian of Greyfriars in 1932, and for about three years a Sunday Mass was celebrated at 9 am for a congregation of 30 to 40 in a café in New High Street.

Father William Flint had been sent to Headington by the Archbishop of Birmingham in November 1935 and Mass was celebrated for the first time in the new Parish Hall on the Feast of Corpus Christi, 12 June 1936. The construction of the church began that month.

Cardinal Arthur Hinsley (1865-1943), Archbishop of Westminster (1935-1943), laid the foundation stone on 1 October 1936. The first stage of the church – the east end – was blessed and opened on 18 February 1937 by Thomas Williams (1877-1946), Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham (1929-1946).

The church was designed by Gilbert Thomas Francis Gardner (1880-1955), who was an architect in Oxford for many years. His projects included the Oxford War Memorial (1921), Twinings shop, Oxford (1924), and shops and flats in Park End Street, Oxford (1925).

Corpus Christ Church in Headington was built in two phases: the east half was built in 1936-1937, and the second phase, the west half, was completed in 1953, although without the tower shown on the original plans. The break between the two parts can still be seen in the different coloured roof tiles and the different types of timber used for the woodblock floor.

The church is built with brick laid in English garden wall bond with a tiled roof and aluminium windows. The plan consists of a longitudinal aisleless nave with a narrower chancel, and a short west tower flanked by transepts. Above the moulded west doorway is a niche with a statue of Christ in Majesty.

The south elevation has gables over five of the central nave bays which project above the roofline. The central gable is wider, presumably due to the original porch below, which is now a niche with a Sacred Heart statue. The east end has a shallow curved extension of the early 1970s to the original blind east wall.

Inside, the church has a tunnel vaulted seven-bay nave. The lobby at the north-west was originally the baptistery, and retains its wrought-iron gates. The sanctuary is flanked by two side chapels. The stone altar, tabernacle stand and lectern date from the reordering in 1980. In the early 1970s, the east end was remodelled, with the addition In the 1970s of a curved dalle de verre window by Leslie Sheels, depicting the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

The north chapel has an icon of Mary Mother of God by the icon writer Alexander Gormatiuk of Moscow, installed in 2000. The south chapel has a copy of Michelangelo’s Pietà. Only the north side chapel retains its altar rails.

The Stations of the Cross (1985-1988) are circular reliefs in bronze by the Oxford sculptor Faith Tolkien (1928-2017), first wife of Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (1924-2020), a lecturer in New College, Oxford. Faith Tolkien’s bust of her father-in-law, JRR Tolkien, is in the English Faculty Library at Oxford University. Her other subjects include Iris Murdoch and CS Lewis.

When the church was refurbished in 2022/2023, the Oxford Preservation Society presented Corpus Christi Church with its 2023 Award for small projects.

• The Revd Ian McDonald is the Minister at Headington Baptist Church, where Sunday morning services begin at 10:30 am. Corpus Christi parish is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and Canon Mervyn Tower is the parish priest. Sunday Masses are at 9 am, 11 am and 6:30 pm.

The first service in the new Headington Baptist Church was held on 5 November 2006 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to Oxford churches and chapels, visit here

A return to Headington, where I find the story of an anti-war protest behind the ‘Headington Shark’

The Headington Shark is a sculpture of a large shark embedded head-first in the roof of a terraced house at 2 New High Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Headington is a suburb in east Oxford, at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, with Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. When I first visited Oxford in my teens, around 1969 or 1970, I stayed in Headington at the youth hostel in Cowley House on Jack Straw’s Lane, which closed in 2001.

I have been through Headington many times in recent years, on my way to and from the hospitals. But an appointment earlier this week at John Radcliffe Hospital and a follow-up visitlater in the week, offered opportunities and time to walk around Headington, and to see the ‘Headington Shark’, the area’s most celebrated landmark and an anti-war protest. There was time too to see Saint Andrew’s Church, Holy Trinity Church and some other churches in the area; to see the ‘Black Booy’ – a pub with a controversial name; and to look into some of Headington’s literary, academic and cultural connections, including links with CS Lewis and Isaiah Berlin.

The commercial and shopping life of Headington and traffic through the area focuses on London Road, the main road between London and Oxford. But Headington also has not one but two High Streets, New High Street and Old High Street. And it was on one of those streets that I found the ‘Headington Shark’ and other noticeable sites.

The Headington Clock in the centre of commercial and shopping life and traffic on London Road in Headington (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Headington Shark – properly named ‘Untitled 1986’ – is a sculpture of a large shark embedded head-first in the roof of a terraced house at 2 New High Street. It began as protest art, installed 40 years ago by Bill Heine and John Buckley, without planning permission and as an anti-war protest, symbolising bombs crashing into homes and buildings.

The shark was installed on 9 August 1986 on the roof of the home of Bill Heine, an American-born radio presenter. Heine and Buckley came up with the idea of the shark while they were drinking wine on the street, and imagined the shark as a metaphor for bombs falling from the US warplanes that flew overhead on their way to bomb Libya.

The shark is in deliberate contrast with its ordinary suburban location. It was designed, created and installed by the Leeds-born sculptor John Buckley with his friend Anton Castiau, a local carpenter. ‘The shark was to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence and anger and desperation’, Heine said. ‘It is saying something about CND, nuclear power, Chernobyl and Nagasaki’.

The painted fibreglass sculpture weighs 200 kg (450 lb), is 7.6 metre (25 ft) long, and the title ‘Untitled 1986’ is written on the gate. It took three months to build the installation, and it was put in place on the 41st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.

The Headington Shark began as anti-war and nuclear statement by John Buckley and Bill Hein (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Over time, there were complaints about the conditions of the sculpture and the house, so to mark the shark’s 21st anniversary it was renovated by Buckley in 2007. Magnus Hanson-Heine, bought the house in 2016 to preserve the shark, before his father Bill Heine died on 2 April 2019. The house has been an Airbnb guesthouse since 2018.

The shark was controversial and was the subject of a six-year battle between Oxford City Council and Bill Heine. The council tried to remove the shark on the grounds of safety and because it did not have proper planning permission. However, the shark had much local support. The Department of the Environment ruled on planning grounds in 1992 that the shark could remain in place because it did not harm a visual amenity.

Oxford City Council had the shark listed with Historic England in 2016 and designated the sculpture a heritage site in 2022, despite objection from Magnus Hanson-Heine, who said, ‘Using the planning apparatus to preserve a historical symbol of planning law defiance is absurd.’

Saint Andrew’s Lane in Old Headington … people have lived in Headington ever since the Stone Age (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

People have lived in Headington ever since the Stone Age, and excavations in Barton Lane suggest a date in the 11th century BCE, while pottery found on the Manor Ground is evidence of an Iron Age settlement in the 7th century BCE. The site of a Roman villa and Roman kilns from about 300 CE have been found, and Anglo-Saxon burial remains from about 500 CE have been discovered.

The name Headington comes from the Old English Hedena’s dun, meaning ‘Hedena’s hill’, and it was the site of a palace or hunting lodge of the Kings of Mercia. Æthelred the Unready, in a charter in 1004, gave land in Headington to Saint Frideswide’s Priory, including the quarry and the area around it.

Henry I granted a chapel at Headington to the Augustinians of Saint Frideswide’s Priory when the priory was founded in 1122. Saint Andrew’s Church, the oldest surviving building in Headington, was built in the mid-12th century, enlarged in the 13th century, the bell tower dates from the 13th or 14th century and the Gothic Revival architect JC Buckler restored the church and lengthened the nave in 1862-1864.

Stone from Headington Quarry was used to build Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1474, and was later used to build Cardinal College, later Christ Church.

Headington Football Club, later Headington United, was formed in 1893 and eventually became Oxford United.

Headington developed rapidly in the early 20th century, with new housing around the mediaeval village, now known as Old Headington, around Saint Andrew’s Church. New Headington, south side of London Road, dates from the late 19th century, and other neighbourhoods include Highfield, Quarry and Headington Hill.

Today the main employment sectors are medicine, education and research. The area includes the main campus of Oxford Brookes University, Ruskin College, which moved to Headington in 2012, and Oxford’s main hospitals, including the John Radcliffe, Nuffield and Churchill.

A plaque at the gate of the Headington House commemorates Sir Isaiah Berlin, who lived there from 1956 until he died in 1997 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Headington’s notable residents have included the poet Elizabeth Jennings; CS Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, who lived in the area until he died in 1963 and who is buried at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry; JRR Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, who lived in Headington from 1953 to 1968; the author Elizabeth Bowen; the newspaper publisher Robert Maxwell; and Lord Nuffield (William Morris).

Oxford academics who have lived in Headington include Sir Anthony Kenny, who died earlier last month (3 August 2026), and Sir Isaiah Berlin, who married Mrs Aline Halban of Headington House in 1956, and lived there until he died in 1997. The comedian David Mitchell, star of the BBC series Ludwig, grew up in Headington.

Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo (1886-1978), a Spanish writer, diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist and Professor of Spanish at Oxford University, lived in Headington before and after the Spanish Civil War, in 1929-1931 and 1940-1973. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize, received the Charlemagne Prize in 1973.

The house in Headington where Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo lived before and after the Spanish Civil War (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The original, 17th century Black Boy stood from 1667 or earlier at the corner of Barton Lane and Old High Street. The board above the door showed a black boy-servant, a sign commonly hung outside coffee houses in the 17th century. The pub was rebuilt on the site as the present Black Boy on Old High Street in 1937.

The rebuilt pub used to have a sculpted figure of a black servant in the niche above the entrance, but this was smashed in 1990 and was replaced by the painting of a chimney-sweep’s boy, which was supposedly more politically correct. Even so, in 1997 there was an unsuccessful attempt by Oxford students to get the pub’s name changed on the grounds that it was offensive.

The niche remained empty from about 2008, but now a black horse decorates the façade as a new story is told about the pub taking its name from a racehorse. Watching school children walk by in the afternoon September sunshine, I wondered what any black child in Headington would think of the name of the pub, no matter what explanation or excuse is offered.

The Black Boy at the corner of Barton Lane and Old High Street was rebuilt on the site in 1937 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

I have yet to be convinced by those explanations or excuses. Instead, I visited the White Hart at 12 St Andrew’s Road, across the street from Saint Andrew’s Church. The White Hart dates from the late 17th century, and is believed to have been the inn once known as ‘Joan of Headington’s’. It is a listed building, and retains some of its original panelling and doors.

In the 17th century, Headington was a favourite destination of Oxford academics taking a walk into the country. As the present main road through the centre did not exist at the time, after reaching the top of Headington Hill they would continue along Cuckoo Lane to the alehouse where the Joan of Headington apparently offered more than ale. By 1750, the inn had become more respectable and it was given a new name as the White Hart.

The White Hart was the annual meet for the South Oxfordshire Hounds, and was also a centre for the mummers. A 26 ft-deep well was discovered in the courtyard in 1976, but was covered for safety reasons.

As for the former youth hostel, which I stayed in when I was 17 or 18, it was renamed Dorothea Beale House after one of the founders of St Hilda’s College, its address is now 32B Jack Straw’s Lane, and it is a children’s nursery.

But more about Saint Andrew’s Church and some other churches in Headington, Jack Straw’s Lane and the connections with CS Lewis in the days to come, hopefully.

The White Hart at 12 St Andrew’s Road, across the street from Saint Andrew’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)