St Milburga's Church, Wixford

St Milburga's is a pretty 12th-century church in peaceful countryside on the outskirts of Wixford. Inside, the Grade II-listed church boasts some of the finest memorial brasses in the county.

Church. C12 and C13. South chapel c.1400. Restored c.1881, timber porch and bell turret probably of that date. Regular coursed lias with limestone dressings and irregular quoins. Chapel has alternating thick and thin courses. Old tile roofs, with some C20 tile to north, and C19 coped gables. Nave and chancel in one, south chapel and porch, west turret. Medieval ribbed and studded south door in corner between nave and chapel, set in Romanesque door- way with simple arch and shafts with cushion capitals. Very simple Romanesque north door, blocked. Nave has Early English lancets, one to south, 2 to west, one to north-east. North side has two 2-light C19 Decorated windows. Single west buttress. Turret with 2 Perpendicular traceried openings to each face. Chancel has simple Decorated east window and a straight-headed 2-light Decorated south window with hood mould, probably renewed. To the north one lancet and a window of 2 tiny steep lancets with a shaft and head, cut from a single block of yellow Campden stone, possibly C12 or earlier. Perpendicular chapel with much restored 5-light east window, straight headed 2 and 3-light windows and a small door to the south. Interior: boarded wagon roofs panelled with thin ribs and carved bosses, and 2 decorative roof arches of thin elaborate Gothic openwork to chancel, probably early C19. Chancel has decorated piscina with plain canopy curving forward and nodding ogee arch opening. Early C15 oak screens: lower part of chancel screen and part of side screen to chapel survive and have moulded rail and muntins. C19 encaustic tile floor. 2-bay Perpendicular arcade with octagonal piers to chapel. Chapel has fragments of old stained glass re-set in windows. Piscina with embattled top. Brass: chest tomb in centre of chapel with very fine brasses to Thomas de Cruwe (died 1411) and his wife. Figures under ogee-headed canopies with inscriptions, badges and coats of arms, all intact. Very finely detailed . Said to be 'the finest brasses in the County' (Buildings of England). 2 small late C16 memorial brasses. Nave has C19 font.