Oxcombe

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Yarburgh

Oxcombe

Oxcombe, All Saints

This tiny church stands in an isolated and beautiful part of the Wolds.

The building has an octagonal tower with cast iron pinnacles, a small nave and a chancel with three sided apse.

Frank Robinson, September 2014

Oxcombe, All Saints church, W A Nicholson

Oxcombe, All Saints

The church was built in 1842 to the design of George Rivis Willoughby with a buttressed octagonal tower, open lantern and cast iron finials.

It cost £500 and was paid for by the landowner, Benjamin Grant, and the vicar, Revd Egremont Richardson.

All Saints was made redundant in 1980 and initially in the care of the Lincolnshire Old Churches Trust but is now owned and cared for by the residents of the Manor House.

The church is listed Grade II.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1280874

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, tower, Benjamin Grant, Egremont Richardson

Oxcombe, All Saints, Font

Octagonal font probably contemporary with the Victorian church.

January 2018

Oxcombe, All Saints, font

Oxcombe, All Saints, Interior Looking East

A brick surfaced floor, two box pews at the front (probably for the manor owner's and the priest's families) and plainer benches behind, give a rural atmosphere.

The brass plaque above the pulpit remembers Thomas and Anne Ross who owned the manor after the Grants, and the small plaque above the chancel arch records "This church was restored AD 1884 by Thomas Ross Esq of Oxcombe Manor".

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, Thomas Ross, Anne Ross

Oxcombe, All Saints, Interior Looking West

This view underlines how narrow and steeply pointed are the doorways through the tower.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints

Oxcombe, All Saints, Memorial (Grant)

John Grant is one of many members of his family commemorated here.

Grant died in 1799 and his tablet is unusual in having part of the inscription chipped out.

He wished it to record that he had acquired £100,000 from farming, a feat that had "never been done before". Later generations of his family removed this wording, perhaps considering it immodest.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, John Grant Memorial

Oxcombe, All Saints, Pews

Although the wooden benches may be older than the fabric of the building, they are rather awkwardly topped with cast iron finials just like those at nearby Haugham All Saints.

The use of cast iron, along with other aspects of the church design, suggest that the architect was George Rivis Willoughby of Louth. (Willoughby was the architect for Haugham.)

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, pews, George Rivis Willoughby

Oxcombe, All Saints, Pulpit & Reading Desk

A quite substantial piece of furniture for this small church.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, pulpit reading desk

Oxcombe, All Saints, Roll of Honour

For such a tiny hamlet this roll would seem to indicate an astonishing number who gave service in the Great War. The 1911 census lists 60 people in nine houses.

Three of those listed were killed in action; two survivors were members of the Bennett family, including Mary Eleanor Bennett who served as a nurse.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, roll of honour, Bennett, Mary Eleanor Bennett

Oxcombe, All Saints, Sanctuary

With only the east window, the tiny sanctuary is quite dark.

Either side are two more of the Grant family memorials.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, sanctuary, Grant

Oxcombe, All Saints, Stained Glass

The east window is by Heaton, Butler & Bayne and shows the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene discovering that Christ's body is no longer in the tomb; instead an angel tells them (the text above) "He is risen, He is not here".

This was commissioned as a memorial to the parish's dead of WWI by Grimsby timber merchant, Sir Francis Sowerby Bennett JP who, from 1912, owned Oxcombe Manor House as a summer residence.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, window, stained glass, Heaton, Butler & Bayne

Oxcombe, All Saints, Tower Interior

The main entrance to the church is through the bell tower, the interior of which is rather like a wide chimney!

The lantern had to be rebuilt in 1925 as is detailed on an inscribed stone.

The bell rope is coiled out of reach; the bell is dated 1637.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, All Saints, tower

Oxcombe, Oxcombe Manor

A delightful yellow brick house built in 1845 to the design of W A Nicholson of Lincoln.

The south front has a buttressed projecting central porch with tall slender turrets above.

The Manor House is Grade II listed.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1359665

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, Manor House

Oxcombe, Oxcombe Manor, Farm Buildings

Part of the well-maintained group of traditional farm buildings.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, Manor

Oxcombe, Oxcombe Manor, Pottery

One of the cart sheds has been converted to become a pottery which provides a popular programme of activities for day visitors.

https://oxcombepottery.co.uk/

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe Manor Pottery

Oxcombe, Windpump

The windpump at Oxcombe stands - albeit at a precarious angle and shorn of wind vanes and tail fin - in the parkland about 300 metres south of the church.

Water from two wells below the lattice tower was pumped by pipeline to a covered reservoir on high ground a short distance west of the hamlet.

The water supply for the manor house and farm buildings was fed from the reservoir by gravity.

Jean Howard, 4 April 2021

Oxcombe, wind pump