Listed Building History: Holy Trinity Church in Quarry
Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry looks ancient, but in fact it was not built until 1849.
Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry is built in the fifteenth-century decorated style, with a nave, north aisle, south porch, and a gable bell-cote with two bells at the west end. It was designed by George Gilbert Scott (who also designed the Martyrs’ Memorial and Exeter College Chapel), and its foundation stone was laid in 1848 by Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, who consecrated the building in 1849.
The Bishop had been instrumental in getting this church built in Quarry, which seems to have been regarded as a heathen outpost of Headington. In a sermon at St Aldate’s Church in Oxford on 9 January 1847, the Bishop alluded to
that special character of spiritual destitution … of the population … gathered at the extremity of the parish of Headington, about its quarries…. Upon all members of the University of Oxford, this district has, alas, some especial claims. With every possible attention to its moral habits, the presence of a university must probably expose the surrounding villages to some peculiar temptations. This population has long been cursed by the neighbourhood of Oxford vice, which has found in the secluded character of the hamlet, and in the consequent lack of rebuke of observation, to fit a scene for its evil deeds.
The work of building the church was rather pointedly not given to local masons, but to George Wyatt of Oxford. Many local people initially boycotted the church that had been thrust upon them from outside.
Listed Building reference: 1485/854
