St Barnabas Church, Oxford

St Barnabas Church, Oxford
View of St Barnabas Church and its campanile.
Location	St Barnabas Street, Jericho, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX2 6BG
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Previous denomination	Traditional Catholic
Website	Parish website
History
Founder(s)	Thomas Combe and Martha Combe
Dedication	St Barnabas
Consecrated	19 October 1869
Architecture
Status	Active
Functional status	Parish church
Architect(s)	Sir Arthur Blomfield
Architectural type	Victorian, Romanesque, Italianate
Administration
Parish	Oxford St. Barnabas and St. Paul with St Thomas the Martyr
Deanery	Oxford Deanery
Archdeaconry	Archdeaconry of Oxford
Episcopal area	Oxford Episcopal Area
Diocese	Diocese of Oxford
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Fr Jonathan Beswick
Assistant priest(s)	Fr Andrew Greany
Laity
Reader(s)	Jenny Pittaway Maggie Ellis Prof Sue Gillingham
Director of music	Dr Tom Edwards
Churchwarden(s)	Henry Gibbon and Hanneke Wilson

St Barnabas Church is a Church of England parish church in Jericho, central Oxford, England, located close to the Oxford Canal.

St Barnabas, like many similar churches in the expanding towns and cities of Victorian England, was built to minister to the spiritual and practical needs of the poor and labouring classes. The parish was formed from that of St Paul, Oxford, in 1869; St Paul's was in turn formed from parts of the parishes of St Thomas and St Giles. The church was founded by Thomas Combe (1796–1872), Superintendent of the Oxford University Press close to the church, and his wife Martha (1806–1893), now commemorated by a blue plaque installed by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. They were supporters of the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian movement). The first Parish Priest was Fr Montague Noel, SSC.

The architect was Sir Arthur Blomfield, a son of the Bishop of London, who had previously designed the chapel for the Radcliffe Infirmary. The architectural style is that of a Romanesque basilica, possibly modelled on that of Torcello, near Venice. St Barnabas has a distinctive square tower, in the form of an Italianate campanile, that is visible from the surrounding area. The church was built on land donated by the local merchant and former Oxford mayor William Ward. It was consecrated in 1869 by Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford and the campanile was completed in 1872. It has a ring of ten, distinctive, tubular bells, and the hours and quarters are sounded on them. St Barnabas features in a wide range of literature, from Thomas Hardy through to P. D. James. The poet John Betjeman wrote a poem about the church. A short guide to the building and its story is available from the church, as is the Emma Bridgewater 'Jericho' mug, commissioned specially for St Barnabas.