Church Of St Swithin

Parish church dating from the early 12th century through to the 16th century, with substantial restoration carried out between 1876 and 1911. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with lead roofs.

The church comprises a truncated nave with clerestory, aisles on both sides, a central tower, transepts, and a chancel with clerestory and aisles, together with a south porch.

The west window is a 19th-century insertion of 4 lights with reticulated tracery and fleurons above, set within a 16th-century rectangular surround. The south aisle contains a 2-light 19th-century window. The north aisle is notable for 3 shallow pilasters and a billet-moulded scalloped corbel table, with a 19th-century Romanesque door and window featuring billet-moulded heads. The nave clerestory is 12th-century work comprising 2 lights flanked by blank openings, all with shafted reveals, cushion capitals and roll-moulded heads, with a scalloped corbel table below.

The north transept contains a restored 15th-century panel-traceried 3-light window. The 3-stage tower features chamfered string courses and an embattled parapet with grotesques and early 14th-century 2-light belfry openings with trefoil heads and quatrefoils.

The chancel north aisle dates to the 14th century and displays a figured corbel table with one 3-light window and two 2-light windows, all with 14th-century cusped reticulated tracery—two with triangular heads and one with a pointed head. A similar 3-light window appears at the east end. The chancel clerestory has a simpler figured corbel table and contains 2 13th-century lancets and 2 circular windows, with a full-height lancet beyond to the east. The chancel east wall features 13th-century pilaster buttresses and 3 tall lancets with shafted reveals and moulded heads. The chancel south aisle has 3 19th-century 3-light windows with cusped tracery, a continuously moulded pointed door on the south, and a 3-light reticulated 19th-century window to the east. The chancel itself has a single 2-light 14th-century reticulated window to the south and a clerestory with 2 lancets and a circular window. The south transept contains a 3-light 19th-century reticulated window and, at the south-west angle, a facetted stair tower with a reset 14th-century quatrefoil. The south aisle features a 2-light 14th-century reticulated window and a single bay of 12th-century clerestory comprising a single light flanked by blank openings.

The gabled south porch has a recut 14th-century outer door with double-chamfered head and a 14th-century inner moulded doorway. In its east wall is a reset stoup with above it a 10th-century interlace carving.

The interior contains a 2-bay early 12th-century nave arcade with large drum pillars and scalloped capitals, later supplemented by 12th-century roll-moulded and chevron arches with billet-moulded hoods. A further pair of shafts buried in the west wall indicates the nave has been truncated. The eastern responds are early 13th-century triple shafts with hob-nailing. The bays are divided by half-round wall shafts supporting roof principals, with a matching sill band to the clerestory. The clerestory lights have shafted rear arches. At the ends of the aisles are triple-chamfered arches to the transepts. The tower crossing has tall early 14th-century pointed arches with deeply moulded heads on shafted and facetted piers with annular capitals. The 13th-century eastern arches to the transepts feature triple-shafted responds, annular capitals and moulded heads. The chancel contains 3 late 13th-century bay arcades with round shafts, octagonal and annular capitals, and double-chamfered arches. In the sanctuary is a 13th-century triple sedilia with detached shafts and pointed moulded heads. The north wall of the chancel contains an early 14th-century tomb niche with cusped head. The east windows have collared shafted moulded rear arches. In the south aisle is a 14th-century piscina with cusped ogee head and sunk triangular panels above.

Fittings include 2 sets of 15th-century pews with blank panel tracery in the chancel, and 6 moulded pews in the north aisle, one featuring reset 17th-century chip-carved panels. A 19th-century facetted ashlar pulpit stands in the chancel. The font is a late 13th-century tub font with engaged octagonal columns, foliated capitals and stubby supporting bases. At the west end is a fragment of a 10th-century cross shaft with interlace decoration, alongside a matching grave cover.

Monuments include a wall monument near the south door in the form of an escutcheon with scrolled sides and shield, commemorating Reverend Hinckesman, who died in 1744.