Turweston

The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of the Assumption of the blesséd Virgin Mary are Norman.[4] The nave was built first, and the north aisle and its two-bay arcade were added in about 1190.[4][6] One Norman window survives in the west wall of the north aisle.[4]

In the middle of the 13th century the chancel was rebuilt with Early English Gothic lancet windows and piscina.[6] Two of these lancets survive; one each in the south and north walls.[6] The south aisle was added at the same time, and its surviving Early English details are a piscina[8] and a lancet west window.[4] The south aisle's two-bay arcade was originally in the Transitional style between Norman and Early English.[8] Only its east arch survives in this form, as in about 1360 its west arch was rebuilt.[4] At the same time both aisles were widened, which is why the west window of the south aisle is now off-centre.[6] In the 14th century in the chancel the lancet window on the south side was extended downwards to form a sedile and an ogeed and crocketted tomb recess was inserted in the north wall.[6] The chancel east window is Perpendicular Gothic.[8] The nave has a clerestory whose roof timbers are early 16th-century.[6] Its tie-beams are moulded and have spandrels with cinquefoil tracery.[6] The second stage of the west tower has a plain two-light window that is also 16th-century.[6]

In 1863 the church was restored under the direction of the Oxford Diocesan Architect, G.E. Street.[9] Street had the gable-roofed west tower rebuilt and a south porch added.[6] He added a vestry and organ-chamber adjoining the north side of the chancel and east end of the north aisle.[6] He also added a south chapel, inserting an arch between the chapel and south aisle and a two-bay arcade between the chapel and the chancel.[6] Street re-used the windows that were removed from where the new arches were inserted: re-using and restoring the 14th-century east window from the south aisle as the east window of the chapel, and re-using the two windows from the south wall of the chancel as the chapel's two south windows.[6]

In the chancel are two monumental brasses. On the north side is an early 15th-century 2-foot (0.6 m) brass of a priest wearing his Mass vestments.[4][6] On the south side are late 15th-century 9-inch (230 mm) brass figures of Thomas Grene in civilian dress with his first and second wives, Joan and Agnes.[4][6] The church has three 17th-century wall-mounted stone monuments. The most notable is a Jacobean one on the east wall of the north aisle, which has kneeling effigies of Simon Heynes (died 1628) and his wife with their baby, framed by Corinthian columns.[4][6]

The stained glass in the east window of the south chapel was made by Thomas Willement in 1851.[4] That in the east window of the chancel was made by Michael O'Connor in 1870.[4]

The west tower has two early 17th-century bells, both cast by Robert Atton[2] of Buckingham. The tenor was cast in 1625 and the treble in 1626.[2] In 1913 the treble was reported to be "badly cracked".[6]

The church is a Grade II* listed building.[8]

The advowson has been attached to the manor since at least the 13th century. Westminster Abbey has held the advowson since Edward I bestowed the manor upon the Abbey in 1292.[2]

The parish of the Assumption is part of the Benefice of West Buckingham, along with the parishes of Biddlesden, Shalstone, Tingewick, Water Stratford and Westbury.[10]

A Wesleyan chapel was built in Turweston in 1861.[2] The building is no longer used for worship but is now the Scout headquarters.

The Stratton Arms was built early in the 18th century[17] and is named after a family that leased the manor from the mid-19th century until at least the 1920s.[2] It is now controlled by Enterprise Inns.[18]

In the late 1840s the Buckinghamshire Railway's line between Verney Junction and Banbury Merton Street was built along part of the Ouse valley through the southwest of the parish, passing about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village. It opened in May 1850, with its nearest station being at Brackley 2 ¹⁄₄ miles (3.6 km) from Turweston.

In the late 1890s the Great Central Main Line from Manchester and Sheffield to London Marylebone was also built through the southwest of the parish, passing about ¹⁄₂-mile (800 m) west of the village. It opened in March 1899 with its nearest station about ³⁄₅-mile (1 km) away at Brackley Central.

British Railways renamed the Buckinghamshire Railway station Brackley Town in 1951 and closed it in 1961. BR closed the Buckinghamshire Railway line in 1963 and the GC Main Line in 1966. The village lies close to the path of the proposed High Speed 2 railway. Much of Turweston lies within 300 yards (275 metres) of the railway's path and this has brought property blight to the village and surrounding area. This issue was featured in an episode of the BBC consumer programme "Rip Off Britain" in October 2014, and a zero value rating placed upon the Old Post Office in Turweston, a Grade II Listed Building. This decision was later revised.

Cirrus SR22 light aircraft and buildings on the airfield

East of the village is Turweston Airfield, which spans the parish's eastern boundary with Biddlesden. The airfield opened in 1942 as an RAF Bomber Command Operational Training Unit. It is now a civilian airfield, conference centre, business park and rally school.