Extract from Victoria County History of Oxfordshire.
AMBROSDEN
The
latter half of the 17th. century saw renewed interest in the care of the fabric
and beautification of the church. Ursula Denton alleged that she spent about £100
(apparently between 1649 and 1660) on the restoration of the chancel.90
White Kennett's influence is reflected in the churchwardens' accounts.91
They record the following items of expenditure: in 1687, £1 4s. 'for a new
cover of wainscot for the font', and £1 6s. 'for a crane of iron for the cover
. . . and a lock'; in 1688, £9 'for a new pulpit and tipe'92 (i.e.
sounding board), and £12 2s. 7d. for ornaments for the pulpit. These include
payments for 7½ yards of damask, a quantity of gold fringe, and gold and silk
tassels. In 1691 £4 13s. 6d. was paid to Richard Robinson, smith, of Oxford,
for making the vane and for iron-work to support it. An Oxford painter, William
Holship, received £2 for gilding. Another smith, Thomas Staunton,
received £4 5s. for the ironwork to support the cross on the steeple. In 1699
two masons were paid £24 13s. for 'whiting, rough-casting and pointing the
tower'.
90 C 5/431/58.
91 ' BIomfield, MS. Amb ff. 20-21.
92
Illustrated in Dunkin, Oxon. i, 6, which shows a pulpit with a sounding board.
It has now been replaced by a 19th-century pitch-pine pulpit.