"Hethe is a hamlet in NE Oxfordshire, 4 miles N of Bicester. A church existed here by the mid-12thc., probably a small two-cell structure with an apse. The present church comprises a square-ended chancel, a clerestoried nave, S and N aisles, a S porch and a W open wooden belfry and spire. In the early 13thc. the apse was replaced by the existing chancel with pilaster buttresses and part of a keeled half-roll string course. The S aisle was added in the 14thc. There was a drastic restoration by G.E. Street in the 19thc. Surviving Romanesque decoration is found in the chancel, in the E wall a re-set stone bearing a beast head, pilaster buttresses at NE and SE corners, and the remains of a string course, and in the S wall a priest’s door and a round-headed window. In the nave W wall is a similar window. The plain tub font may also be Romanesque.
At the time of the Conquest, Hethe was held by the thegn Wulfward the White, who also held Finmere nearby. By 1086, assessed at 8 hides, it belonged to Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances, whose tenant at Hethe was a certain Roger. By the early 12thc. the manor appears to be the property of the wife of Geoffrey de Clinton, Henry I's chamberlain, of Cassington and Glympton, Oxfordshire. She gave the whole village as a marriage portion to her daughter Lesceline, wife of Norman de Verdun. A church was in existence during the lifetime of Norman de Verdun, who died in 1154, and it was given by his widow to the priory of Augustinian canons at Kenilworth, founded by her father in 1122.
Originally the church was dedicated to St Edmund, but around 1300 on St George’s Day, it was rededicated to St Edmund and St George (VCH).
Hethe belongs to the Shelswell benefice, comprising Cottisford, Finmere, Fringford, Goddington, Hardwick, Hethe, Mixbury, Newton Purcell, Stoke Lyne and Stratton Audley.
S chancel doorway -A restored priest's doorway, round-headed and plain, located at the W end of the S chancel wall. Built of one order of chamfered dressed stones with a double chamfered label.
Chancel stringcourse -Lengths of a keeled plain half-roll string course remain on the E wall of the chancel and on the S and N walls for a short distance. Damaged in several places, the roll is over 2 m above ground level.
Chancel pilaster buttresses -A keeled angle pilaster is present on the SE and NE corners of the chancel, extending from ground level to approximately 1.6 m. Each is flanked by courses of dressed stone, topped by a short sloping label. The tops of the pilasters themselves are plain and sloped, over a small cavity with a lip beneath.
Font -Located in the S aisle, a plain tapered font of oolytic limestone, possibly Romanesque. It sits on a cylindrical shallow base of similar width, possibly original. Below, a later octagonal chamfered base. The lead lining extends on to the rim.
Chancel E wall, beast head -On the S side of the E wall, at approximately 1.5 m from the ground and almost at level with the SE buttress top, a stone portraying an animal or beast head. There are posiible remains of ears at the top of the head. The face has bulging oval eyes with lids and brows, and is damanged at the end of the long nose or snout. The edges of the stone are incomplete and it now measures approximately 0.14 m in height and 0.12 m in width."
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