Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford 
Satellite view of Christ Church College (left) and Cathedral (right).
For more photos, see our Christ Church Cathedral Photo Gallery.
Cloisters and tower of Christ Church Cathedral.
View through the chancel to the altar and east rose window.
The beautiful chancel ceiling, designed by William Orchard in c.1500.
Detail of the unique Jonah Window (1630s), with the city of Ninevah.
Latin Chapel with Shrine of St Frideswide; a service in the Latin Chapel.
Shrine of St. Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford.
Detail of carvings on the Shrine of St. Frideswide.
Panel 8 in the Frideswide Window: the saint hides from Algar in a pig sty.
Watching chamber (c.1500) overlooking the Shrine of Frideswide.
The Thomas Becket Window (c.1320).
13th-century medallions of saints on the chapter house ceiling.
Interactive map of Christ Church Cathedral. See also our Oxford Map.
Christ Church Cathedral is the smallest cathedral in England and the seat of the Bishop of Oxford. It is unique in serving not only as a cathedral but as the chapel of Christ Church College.
History
The history of Christ Church Cathedral begins with a Saxon monastic church founded in the 8th century by Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford. Frideswide (c.650-735) was a princess who committed herself to chastity and became a nun, fleeing the marital advances of King Algar of Mercia. Nothing remains of her original church, but a Saxon cemetery was recently discovered beneath the cloister.
The building that stands today was founded in the 12th century by Augustinian monks and called the Priory Church of St. Frideswide. In 1180 the relics of Frideswide were transferred to the new church, which attracted pilgrims throughout the Middle Ages. One pilgrim was Catherine of Aragon, wife of Henry VIII, who came to pray for a son in 1518.
In 1525, at the height of his power, Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York, suppressed the St Frideswide's Priory and founded "Cardinal College" on its lands. He planned the establishment on a magnificent scale, but fell from grace in 1529, before the college was completed.
In 1531 the college was itself suppressed, and refounded in 1532 as "King Henry VIII's College" by Henry VIII, to whom Wolsey's property had escheated.
Then in 1546 the king, who had broken from the Church of Rome and acquired great wealth through the dissolution of the monasteries in England, refounded the college as Christ Church College. As part of the re-organization of the Church of England, the former priory church became the cathedral of the recently created diocese of Oxford.
From 1642 to 1646, during the Civil War, King Charles I had his headquarters at Christ Church and regularly attended the cathedral. The Great Quadrangle was used to keep stray and plundered cattle; hay to feed the cattle was stored in the loft above the chancel vault in the cathedral! Several monuments of Royalists who fought with Charles can be seen in the cathedral's Lucy Chapel.
What to See
The exterior of the cathedral is difficult to see much at all, since it is now surrounded by college buildings. The central tower, which can best be seen from the cloisters, is late Norman with an Early English belfry.
Inside, the nave, chancel, and transepts are all late Norman and were probably erected in the mid-12th century. The beautiful chancel ceiling was added c.1500 by William Orchard. Its intricate starlike patterns create an image of heaven and 12 pendants hang gracefully from it.
Just to your left as you enter the cathedral is the Jonah Window, designed by Abraham van Linge in the 1630s. Only the figure of Jonah is made of stained glass; the rest consists of painted glass that show the city of Ninevah in minute detail.
The Lady Chapel adjoining the north aisle of the chancel was added in the mid-13th century; the Latin Chapel was added further north in the early 14th century.
The oldest monument in the cathedral is the Shrine of St. Frideswide in the Latin Chapel. The arches along the top are decorated with faces peeping out from behind foliage and more faces decorate the base.
Built in 1289, the shrine once contained the holy relics of Frideswide and was visited by countless medieval pilgrims. It was destroyed in 1538, along with most other saints' shrines in Britain, as part of the Reformation.
Fragments of the shrine were discovered in the college in the 1870s and more were uncovered in the cloister in 1985. The shrine was fully reconstructed as accurately as possible in 2002, an effort that earned an Oxford Preservation Trust award in 2005.
Behind the Shrine is the Victorian St. Frideswide Window, created by Edward Burne-Jones in 1858. The top panel shows a ship of souls carrying Frideswide to heaven and the flower-shaped windows below that show the Tree of Knowledge (left) and the Tree of Life (right). The remaining 16 panels depict scenes from the saint's life, as follows:
- Frideswide is educated by Sts. Catherine and Cecilia
- Frideswide cuts her hair before she enters the nunnery
- A messenger from King Algar demands her in marriage
- King Algar comes to the nunnery to take Frideswide by force
- Frideswide flees Oxford
- Algar and his men follow
- Frideswide hides in the bushes
- Frideswide hides in a pig sty
- Frideswide rows up the Thames to Binsey, where she is helped by fellow nuns
- Algar continues his pursuit
- Frideswide establishes a nunnery at Binsey
- Frideswide heals the sick
- Frideswide draws water from the holy well at Binsey
- Frideswide returns to Oxford, which is then beseiged by King Algar
- Upon entering Oxford, Algar is struck blind
- Frideswide on her death bed
Children and adults alike may enjoy picking out the following interesting details in the St Frideswide Window: ducks and sunflowers in panel 8; sleeping pigs in panel 9; a sign post showing Oxford and Binsey in panel 12; and a toilet in panel 16. The last detail obviously reflects the Victorian date of the window and not Frideswide's time!
Next to the Shrine is what is thought to be a watching chamber, from which a careful eye could be kept on the gold and jewels that enriched the shrine. The lower part is an altar-tomb made of stone with a stone canopy; the upper part is made of wood. It dates from around 1500.
The oldest stained glass window in the cathedral is the Becket Window, found in the Lucy Chapel on the south side. This dates from 1320 and is a rare surviving portrayal of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in his cathedral by order of the king in 1170.
At the Reformation, King Henry VIII ordered all images of Becket to be destroyed. This one was saved by replacing Becket's face with clear glass. The face of Becket has since been restored and is the only part that is not original.
The Chapel of Remembrance, on the south side of the chancel, contains memorials for the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and a memorial bust of Edward Pusey, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement and Regius Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church 1828-82. Its main window is the St. Catherine Window, created by Edward Burne-Jones in 1878. The face of St. Catherine of Alexandria, in the center, is a portrait of Edith Liddell, whose sister was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.
Christ Church Cathedral is filled with various tombs, monuments and memorials. Of special interest is Tomb of Lady Elizabeth Montacute (d.1354), next to the Shrine of St Frideswide. Lady Montacute sponsored the construction of the chapel in which she lies and also donated the land that is now Christ Church Meadow.
Lady Montacute's tomb is topped with her effigy, which rests on cushions held by two angels and has a dog at her feet. The sides of the tomb are carved with portraits of her ten children; one of these is a bishop, no doubt Simon of Ely (1337‑1345).
The short ends of the tomb have quatrefoils with the Virgin and Child, Mary Magdalene (or maybe Frideswide) and the Four Evangelists. All the figures lost their faces at the Reformation. An adjacent ceiling vault, below which the tomb was originally placed, bears traces of painted angel wings.
At the east end of the north aisle, not far from Lady Montacute, is the striking Bell Altar (2000). Created to mark the millenium, the modern creation is made of simple black-painted wood. It is dedicated to Bishop George Bell, who among other things opposed the bombing of Germany in WWII.
At the foot of the pulpit, a stone was placed in 2003 to mark the tercentenary of the birth of John Wesley, founder of Methodism. Both John and his brother, the hymnwriter Charles, were undergraduates at Christ Church in the 1720s and were ordained in the cathedral as priests in the Church of England.
Exit the cathedral by the side door on the south side for access to the cloisters, a room showing a 15-minute video on Christ Church's history, and the Chapter House Shop and Treasury.
The cloisters are small but attractive and contain a variety of memorials, coats of arms and figurative carvings. They also contain toilets and lead to the justifiably famous Great Hall, where scenes of the Harry Potter movies were filmed.
The chapter house is worth a visit even if you don't want to buy anything - on the ceiling are interesting painted medallions of saints and angels and intricately carved bosses at the interesection of the vaults. There are fine stained glass windows in the back. The chapter house was built in the Early English period (1180-1275) and is contemporary with those at Lincoln, Salisbury and Chester cathedrals.
The doorway leading to the chapter house from the cloisters is Norman and richly decorated with red-painted zigzag molding.
Quick Facts
| Names: | Christ Church Cathedral; The Dean, Chapter and Students of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford of the Foundation of King Henry VIII (official name) |
| Type of site: | Anglican Cathedral |
| Dates: | Founded 1546 |
| Location: | St Aldate's Street, Oxford, England |
| Phone: | 01865 276492 |
| Website: | http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk |
| Hours: | Mon-Sat 9-5, Sun 1-5pm |
| Cost: | £4.70 (includes admission to the dining hall) |
Travel Resources
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Sources
- Personal visits (April 5, 2006; May 1, 2007; and others)
- "A Brief Tour of the Cathedral" (information sheet provided at entrance)
- "The St Frideswide Window" (information sheet provided near the window)
- "Information for Visitors" - Christ Church Cathedral Website
- "Christ Church, Oxford" - Richard John King, King's Handbook to the Cathedrals of England (1862) (online)
