Church Of St Swithin

A parish church of limestone ashlar with lead roofs, located on Leadenham Main Road. The building dates from the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with alterations and additions from 1841 and the 20th century.

The exterior features coped gables with cross finials, a moulded parapet with octagonal corner pinnacles to the east of the nave and chancel, and gabled angle buttresses with set-offs. A moulded and chamfered double plinth runs around the building. All window and door openings have hood moulds and label stops.

The church comprises a west tower and spire, a nave with north and south aisles and porches, a chancel, and a north vestry.

The west tower is four stages tall with moulded stage bands. The west face has a small four-centred arched doorway beneath a large three-light plate tracery pointed arched window, with a small lancet above. The north and south faces of the first two stages are blank. The third stage has pairs of blind arches to each face, unequal on the south and west sides. The fourth stage has four two-light ogee-headed recessed and chamfered late 14th-century bell openings with plate tracery. Above rises a battlemented parapet with gargoyles and pinnacles topped with a 15th-century crocketed spire with three sets of alternating lucarnes.

The north aisle has a three-light west window with reticulated tracery in a pointed arch. The north gabled porch has diagonal buttresses with set-offs and is topped with a parapet decorated with shields and gargoyles on the side walls. The entrance has a moulded four-centred arched chamfered opening with a small niche above. Inside the porch are stone benches. The inner doorway has a chamfered and moulded pointed arch with a niche above within a gable decorated with crockets, rising into the porch roof with large head label stops.

The north aisle contains two 14th-century four-light windows with reticulated tracery in segmental recessed and chamfered arches. The east wall has a similar five-light window. The clerestory has three similar two-light windows on each side.

The chancel has a single north window of three lights in a four-centred arch. Between the chancel and vestry is a battlemented stair turret with two small lancets. The 19th-century gabled vestry has a single two-light north window and a single three-light east window, both in four-centred arches. The chancel's large four-light east window in a pointed arch has unusual tracery made up of three roughly triangular panels. The south wall has two three-light windows in recessed four-centred arches.

The south aisle has a five-light reticulated tracery segmental-arched window to the east, two similar four-light windows to the south, and a three-light plate tracery pointed-arched window to the west. The shallow gabled south porch has a moulded parapet, angle buttresses, and a moulded and chamfered four-centred arched opening with single shaft responds.

The interior has three-bay nave arcades with compound keeled piers and responds supporting finely moulded pointed arches. The chancel and tower arches are similar. Openings for the rood stair survive in the south-east corner of the nave. The nave roof is largely 19th century but incorporates original 14th-century timbers.

An ogee-headed piscina survives in the chancel and another in the north aisle. The 19th-century chancel roof was hand-painted by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin in 1841. The chancel contains a 19th-century mosaic reredos, 19th-century wooden pews, a 19th-century marble pulpit, and a wood and iron altar rail.

The church contains numerous monuments and brasses. In the chancel floor are brasses to Elizabeth Beresford (1624) and Margaret Beresford (1635). On the east wall is a 17th-century high relief Beresford coat of arms, and on the north wall a plaque topped by a coat of arms to Charles Beresford (1716). Two wall tablets commemorate Ellis Key (1756) and William Key (1752) on the west wall of the south aisle. On the south wall is a monument to Lady Jane Sherard (1856) in low relief showing a lady weeping over an urn. The north aisle contains a similar monument to Frances Welby (1858) and two Gothic monuments to General John Reeve (1864) and William Reeve (1820).