The church of S. Barnabas, Oxford is a product of the Oxford (Tractarian) movement. It was founded by Thomas Combe and his wife, Martha. Thomas Combe was the son of a Leicestershire bookseller and had joined the University (the Clarendon) Press in 1837. In due course he took over the its management. The Combes were zealous patrons of the arts and devotees of the Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood. But above all, it was as faithful Christians that they came to feel some responsibility for the spiritual welfare of the youthful and increasing population which was growing up around the Press in its new (1830) building in Walton Street. This decided them to establish a church.
As architect they chose Sir Arthur Blomfield, a son of the Bishop of London. He was making his name as an ecclesiastical architect and had recently designed the chapel of the Radcliffe Infirmary for Thomas Combe, whose gift it was. Combe gave him an almost entirely free hand in the design of the church. The only stipulations were that it should be large enough for a thousand worshippers, that it should be thoroughly sound in construction and the interior dignified. Nothing was to be wasted on external appearance. The style preferred was that of a Romanesque basilica with campanile, after the style of the cathedral of Torcello near Venice. The site was given by William Ward, one-time Fellow of Balliol and a leader of the Tractarian movement. The builder was Joseph Castle of Oxford. The church with all of its furniture and fittings cost a little less than £6,500. The basilica was consecrated in 1869 by Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford. The campanile was erected in 1872.
Entering by the south-west door and passing through the baptistry, the visitor's eye is drawn at once to the gilded sanctuary and its surrounding decorations. There, in an apse, beyond the raised choir stalls over which hangs a large metal cross, stands the high altar, canopied by a baldachino, thought to be the first in an Anglican church since the reformation. It is flanked by the four beasts of the Apocalypse. Behind are portrayed the Apostles with Christ above in the act of blessing the faithful, representatives of whom appear in murals of later date along the north arcade.
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An early view of the interior of the Church |
| Thomas Combe, the founder of St Barnabas | An early view of the Church,circa 1869 |
Important alterations and additions to the church include the Lady Chapel, of which the altar and reredos are a memorial to the founder; the pulpit is in memory of Mrs Combe's brother-in-law, Canon Ridgway. The Holy Cross Chapel was converted from the porch at the west end of the north aisle in 1912 to house the Reserved Sacrament. The Sacrament is reserved nowadays on the altar of S. George's Chapel, at the east end of the south aisle. The chapel was constructed in 1919 as a thank-offering for S. Barnabas' first 50 years, and as a memorial to the sacrifices of the First World War.
An early addition was the organ loft. This has been criticized by purists as tending to spoil the traditional gap which normally separates a campanile from the body of the nave. The seven sanctuary lamps were given by the Duke of Newcastle and some of his undergraduate contemporaries. A brass in the chancel floor recalls the life and work of the first Vicar, Montague Henry Noel; a high-altar crucifix and set of candles are a thank-offering of the Rathbone family; a statue of our Lady with our Lord and S. John the Baptist as children is in memory of Charles Montague Brown, and a 'Della Robbia' is in memory of Julia Marshall. Various brasses and tablets commemorate parishioners and other members of the congregation. Carved somewhat unconventionally in one of the two stone pilasters and pedestals are little portraits of Bishop Wilberforce, Mr. Hackman of S. Paul's, the mother church, Mr Noel, Mr Combe and his pet dog, 'Jessie'.
The War Memorial Altar in the south aisle was transferred from S. Paul's, Walton Street when the benefices were united in 1964. The grille in the south west porch by which visitors enter the church was installed in 1981. It was designed by Alan Drury, a parishioner, and made at Lucy's Eagle Ironworks in the Parish.
R. N.
D.
M. A. A.
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