The Church

A very warm welcome to information about St Peter and St Paul Church, Aston Rowant. We are part of the United Parish of Chinnor, Aston Rowant, Sydenham and Crowell.

Full details about our church, and our services, our programs, whose who, contact details etc can be found at the website, achurchnearyou.com

The church is open for visitors and for private prayer every day during daylight hours. Our normal service routine is for Sunday morning worship at 9 am but this does change for special services.

Historic information about baptisms, weddings and burials is available for browsing in the South chapel.

If you need to contact the church urgently then the following tel. numbers could be useful:

Rev. Dr. Jacky Barr – Rector to the United Parish. 01844 352027

Richard Boarder – Church Warden Aston Rowant. 07795 681263

Parish Office – St Andrews Church, Church Road, Chinnor. OX39 4PG

Patricia Prescott -Tuesday to Thursday afternoons. 01844 352472

We hope that the information here is useful and that you take the opportunity to visit our lovely historic church.

Please say a prayer for the life and worship of the whole community before you leave this page and we hope to welcome you here in person soon.

The Parish Church Bells

The tower contains a ‘peal’ of six bells, which are rung from the ground floor. The tenor (heaviest) bell weighs a little under 13 cwt (657 kg) and is tuned to F#. It was cast (as were the 2^nd and 3^rd) in 1625. The oldest bell is the 4^th (cast around 1450) and the newest is the treble (lightest) bell, weighing less than 5 cwt (246 kg), cast at the Whitechapel foundry in 1975. The bells were augmented from a very challenging five, retuned and rehung in a new frame and dedicated in 1978.

They are rung before Sunday services (usually 9.25 – 9.55am) and for practice (usually 7.30 – 9pm on Tuesdays). They are also rung for weddings and to mark other local, national and even international events.

‘Full circle’ change ringing, where the bells swing through 360 degrees, is an English tradition which began around 400 years ago. It combines light aerobic exercise, rhythm, mental stimulation and teamwork. We are always delighted to welcome new recruits – both for tower and hand bell ringing – so if you are aged between 10 and 70, please come along one Tuesday and see how it’s done. It would be a good skill for family members to learn together and tuition is free!