St. Cross was at one time a chapel-of-ease or subsidiary place of worship connected to St. Peter-in-the-East (on Queens Lane, Oxford). The date of the church’s foundation is not known; some writers have suggested that St. Cross was first built by St. Grimwald (about 890 AD). However, the church was probably built or rebuilt by Robert D’Oilly, a close follower of William the Conqueror, who is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) as being Lord of the Manor of Holywell. The reason for the church’s dedication to the Holy Cross remains uncertain. The only remaining part of the Norman church is the arch of the chancel (the area before the altar), the imposts of which are decorated with a sunken star pattern. Clearly the chancel and nave (the main body of the church) followed their present lines at that time. The lower part of the tower was added in the thirteenth century, along with aisles to the north and south flanking the tower.

Around 1464, Henry Sever, the head or ‘Warden’ of Merton College, Oxford, had the tower rebuilt, apparently at his own expense. Also in the fifteenth century most of the south aisle was removed, the remaining part serving as a side chapel and likewise with the north aisle, save the part adjoining the tower. This work left the church in the shape of a cross, appropriate to its dedication. The only alteration between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries was the addition of a small porch on the south side in 1592, which bore the arms of Merton College. Merton College had been given the church and the Manor of Holywell in 1266 by King Henry III.

The Lady Chapel (the south aisle of the church) seems to have been built in the thirteenth century and was a special ‘chantry’ chapel (a chapel for saying mass for the souls of the departed), endowed by property in Holywell Street, close to the church. A niche between the pulpit and the Lady Chapel altar probably dates back to around 1500, although the statue of the Virgin and Child now occupying it is modern, being a memorial to the writer and critic Walter Pater, given by Canon Ottley of Christ Church College. In the picture, the Lady Chapel can be seen on the south side of the church, (to the right of the gate, with a single window) prior to its later incorporation into the enlarged south aisle.

It was in the 1830s that the Victorian ‘restoration’ of the church began, in which the north aisle was built, incorporating the remaining part of the original aisle. Shortly after, the chantry chapel (now the Lady Chapel) was incorporated into a new south aisle. In the 1840s, more work was undertaken on the north aisle, extending it westwards, in order to match the new, longer, south aisle. At this stage the roof was altered and the clerestory (high level windows) added to provide better light and ventilation. The construction of the south aisle led to the removal of the sixteenth century porch. Although a small priest’s vestry was added to the north side of the chancel at this stage, the 1870’s saw the addition of the present choir and priest’s vestries and the organ chamber. In the 1890’s the roof of the nave was altered to its present form and the clerestory windows enlarged, in order to increase the level of lighting. Around this time, a new sundial was added to the church tower, replacing an older one. It is not known when the tower first boasted a sundial, but it was certainly before the nineteenth century. Plans are currently in hand to restore the sundial which has faded much in recent years; it is felt to be a fitting way to celebrate the new millenium.

Probably none of the stained glass pre-dates the nineteenth century although some of the glass in the vestry may date from the fifteenth century, and much of the tracery is certainly fifteenth century. The east window (above the main altar), showing the crucifixion of Our Lord, dates from 1873 and commemorates the Rev. H. B. Walton, vicar of the parish from 1851 to 1871. The east window of the south aisle (Lady Chapel) was donated by Lady Stainer in 1901, whose husband, Sir John Stainer, composer of The Crucifixion and other famous works, had been churchwarden of the parish in the 1890s. Fittingly, the window pictures an orchestra of angels. The window at the west end of the north aisle was formerly in the Lady Chapel and was transferred to make way for the Stainer memorial.

There are traces of red paint on some of the ancient stones in the chancel and in all probability there were medieval paintings on both sides of the chancel arch. Near the high altar some painted decoration dating from the Victorian restoration can be seen, although now much faded. The mural painting above the chancel arch, depicting the crucified Christ, was commissioned by Mr Leslie Pimm, a former organist and choirmaster, and was completed in 1940 by a local artist, replacing a more elaborate fresco dating from 1893 which had deteriorated considerably. The niche to the north of the chancel arch is thought either to have contained a relic of the Holy Cross or, together with a round-headed arch, to have led to a rood-loft (a raised gallery used for reading or sometimes preaching from; rood being old English for a cross). The oldest surviving record of roof painting in the chancel suggests that the work was done by the Revd. R. G. H. Orchard (who is commemorated in the window of the Priest’s Vestry) and his wife in the period 1850-1860.

Although the present pulpit is Victorian its position was occupied by a much earlier one, also, like the current one, entered through the curious tunnel from the chancel. This, however, was blocked up in the eighteenth century, when a large wooden pulpit with a sounding board and clerk’s desk was installed halfway down the north side of the nave, facing south. There was then a gallery in the Lady Chapel, with pews facing the pulpit, and a gallery also in the tower. The general appearance of the church interior at that time was described as a chamber, enclosed in bare white-washed walls, with a flat white-washed ceiling. The pews extended into the chancel and were closed by doors. Sadly, all this was lost during the nineteenth century.

There exist two ancient brasses in the Church. One is not itself on display because it lies beneath the nave altar, however, an accurate copy can be seen on the south side of the south tower support. Although the style is that of a pre-Reformation brass, its date is later than this. It commemorates the wife, Agnes, and daughter, Jane, of John Hopper sometime fellow of New College. The wife is dressed in the style of a widow and the daughter is shown wearing a Puritan bonnet, each figure being canopied by a round arch, between which appears the date 1625. The second brass, dated 1622, can be seen on the west side of the same tower support, and shows Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Franklin, lying in a bed on which can be seen three babies in shrouds and one in swaddling clothes. Below, the inscription describes how Elizabeth escaped death on three occasions of childbirth, and there follows a short epitaph. The brass has much interesting detail and is worthy of close inspection. A large, carved wooden chest standing close to the brass was originally in the church of St. Peter-in-the-East and dates from the eighteenth, or possibly seventeenth century.

The church has a fine peal of six bells plus a sanctus bell; the middle four of the six date from the seventeenth century and carry inscriptions relating to the foundries of origin. The tenor was added in the eighteenth century, and the treble in the nineteenth.

In 1861 J. W. Walker built a small organ with four stops on the north side of the chancel, replacing an instrument dating from 1828. In 1876/7 William Hill & Son enlarged the organ to its present size of two manuals and sixteen stops, and moved it to its present position.

Until 1892 it was customary for the minister of St Cross Church to be a ‘fellow’ or tutor of Merton College, and even after that point all the clergy until 1950 were members of the college, which still remains the Patron. There was formerly a stipendiary curate resident in the Parish to assist the minister (the minister would have lived in Merton College). Ministers can be traced back to 1653, from which time the parish registers and other books are fairly complete. A vicarage was built close to the church in 1863, but was sold to Merton College in 1959. The proceeds of the sale were used to build a parsonage house in Mansfield Road for the ‘United Benefice’ of St. Peter-in-the-East and St. Cross; this unification of these two ancient parishes came into being by an ‘Order in Council’ signed by Her Majesty the Queen at Goodwood House on 31^st. July 1957. In the 1890s the Parish of St. John (which included Merton College) had already been incorporated into that of St. Peter’s. Since then Peter-in-the-East has ceased to be used as a regular place of worship; the main part of that church is used as the library for St. Edmund Hall (a neighbouring college of Oxford University) but its crypt remains consecrated and a service of Holy Communion is held there on St. Peter’s Day (29^th. June). The crypt is open to the public - the key is kept by the Lodge at St. Edmund Hall. It is worth a visit. The combined benefice of St. Cross with St. Peter-in-the-East was itself combined with that of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, in the High Street, and the Vicar of St Mary’s, as incumbent of St Cross, lived in the Mansfield Road Vicarage. In 1999, the vicar removed to a new house in Norham Gardens.

The name of ‘Holywell’ derives from the Holy Well which can now only be seen under a grating through the double doors leading into the garden of Holywell Manor just to the north of the church. It was dedicated to the saints Winifred and Margaret and became the destination for many pilgrims, which led to a period of prosperity for the locality. The well’s location was eventually lost and forgotten, being only rediscovered in 1896 when building work was being undertaken at the manor house. Excavations revealed stone work around the well which was more than one thousand years old. Next to the well there was a stone-lined pool, dating from perhaps the fifteenth century, into which the sick could immerse themselves in hope of a cure.

Immediately to the north of the church stands Holywell Manor House; the lords of the manor were almost certainly the founders of the church - the boundary of the parish of St Cross corresponds with the ancient boundaries of the manor's land. In 1266 the manor became the property of Merton College, in whose hands it still legally remains. The Manor House has been leased by Merton College to various tenants. From around 1750 onwards part of the manor was used as an inn, attached to which was one of the few cock-pits in the Oxford area, remaining thus until the middle of the nineteenth century. During the nineteenth century, the manor was used as a female penitentiary and was also a house of the Clewer Sisters, a religious order. The historic manor house has in recent years been much (but sympatheticaly) extended and is now used by Balliol College as a centre for its postgraduate students.

The parish lies outside the line of the medieval city wall of Oxford, which formed the manor and parish boundary to the south (part of the city wall - and hence parish boundary - is well-preserved in the grounds of nearby New College). A dispute between the city authorities and Merton College led in 1315 to a definition of the ‘demesne’ or lands of the Manor of ‘Haliwell’ and hence the boundaries of the parish. The bounds were delineated thus:

There are many interesting memorials in and around the church commemorating persons associated with the parish. Within the church is a memorial to the Scotsman John Snell who was buried at St. Cross in 1679. Snell’s generous bequest provided for the establishment of the Snell Exhibitions at Balliol College, Oxford (an exhibition is a form of scholarship). On the north wall of the church can be seen the memorial to George Seidel - a Polish-born theologian of German descent, who settled in Oxford in the seventeenth century. Under the chancel there is a vault (not open to the public) which contains the remains of members of the Napier family.

In Holywell cemetery, behind the churchyard, can be found the gravestones of many notable individuals. They include Kenneth Grahame (author of Wind in the Willows), Sir John Stainer (composer) and Ken Tynan (critic). In the centre of the cemetery a notice lists the location of burials and provides information about the organization The Friends of Holywell Cemetery.