About Us

The Church of St Edmund & St George is managed by Hethe Parochial Church Council (PCC).  It is part of the Shelswell Benefice within the Bicester and Islip Deanery in the Oxford Diocese.

The Church is Grade 2 Listed and is sited within Hethe Conservation Area. There is also a Grade 2 Listed Headstone dated 1682 (approximately 10 metres south of the porch).

The first church on this site was dedicated to St Edmund and was built in the early 12th Century by a Lord Norman de Verden, whose father served with William the Conqueror. A hundred and fifty years later Hethe had outgrown its small Norman church which was rebuilt and on a St George’s Day around the turn of the 14th Century, it was rededicated to become the Church of St Edmund and St George.

In 1859 the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street restored the building, widened the chancel arch, and added the bell-turret and the north aisle. Street moved the east window from the chancel to the north aisle and inserted a new east window in the chancel in its place.

The church is a traditional, rural, building which does not have a water supply or toilets. Seating is on Victorian, or earlier, wooden pews and the electric heating is under-seat/feet.  The front aspect is south facing so is nearly always warm and sunny.

It has a maximum seating capacity of 120.

There is a limited space to prepare and dispense refreshments. A wooden ramp is available to enable wheel chair access. 

The church is in a good state of repair - in 2017 we had replacement guttering and drain pipes fitted and other works are on-going as funding permits.

You can also find the church on the Explore Churches web site:

https://www.explorechurches.org/church/st-edmund-st-george-hethe