Steeple Aston - Church of St Peter and St Paul

Steeple Aston The Church of St Peter and St Paul is 13th century, with subsequent Perpendicular Gothic alterations, and the architect John Plowman restored it in 1842. The parish church is the source of the Steeple Aston cope, an important piece of 14th century embroidery now on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museumin London.

The church tower has a ring of eight bells. Richard Keene of Burford cast the three oldest bells in 1674 and 1675. A further bell was cast in 1700 by one of the Chandler family of bell-founders from Drayton Parslow in Buckinghamshire. Two bells were added in the 19th century cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry: one cast by Thomas Mears II in 1827 and the other, the present tenor, cast by Mears and Stainbank in 1879. This completed a ring of six bells, with the smallest of the Keene bells being the treble. In 1986 the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast two slightly smaller bells which were added as a new treble and second bell, increasing the ring to eight. The church also has a Sanctus bell, cast in 1701 by Henry Bagley II