Church Of St Swithun

Church of St Swithun

A chapel-of-ease that later became the parish church of Clunbury, this building dates from the early and late 12th century, with further work in the 14th and 15th centuries. Minor additions and alterations were made in 1842 and 1848, and the church was comprehensively restored by James Piers St. Aubyn in 1881.

The building is constructed of uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. The nave and porch have stone slate roofs, while the chancel and vestry are covered with slates featuring coped verges on carved stone kneelers. The chancel has a chamfered plinth.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, south porch, and organ chamber.

The west tower is probably late 12th century in two stages, standing on a chamfered plinth. It has an embattled parapet with a string course below and another string course below the belfry windows. The belfry openings feature louvred windows with 3-centred arches on the east and north sides, and cusped windows on the south and west, the latter with square heads. The first stage on the south has a similar square-headed window with a single broad cusped light. An inset 18th-century sundial above retains its gnomon, though its inscription had flaked off at the time of resurvey in July 1986. The west doorway is a pointed double-chamfered opening dating to around 1200, though it may have been rebuilt in 1842. Short clasping buttresses at the north-east and south-east angles are actually part of the west wall of the earlier nave. The tower is topped by a pyramidal slate cap and brass weathercock.

The nave is probably early 12th century, extended westwards in the mid-to-late 12th century, with its eaves raised in the 15th century—the original eaves line is clearly visible on the south side. The south side is buttressed in three unequal bays. It features a narrow round-headed Romanesque window immediately to the right of the porch. In the middle bay is a mid-14th-century pointed window with paired broad cinquefoil-headed lancets and a quatrefoil above. The right bay contains an early 15th-century square-headed window with two trefoil-headed lights to the left and an early 14th-century window of paired cusped lancets to the right. Below this is a contemporary segmental pointed arched recess containing a grave slab with an incised floriated cross, which, although of roughly the same date as the arch, is apparently not in situ. The porch, restored in 1881, is timber-framed with fretted bargeboards and a ceramic cross to the gable. It incorporates a restored 12th-century single-stepped round-headed doorway with imposts and hoodmould. To the west of the 14th-century window in the middle bay, the west jamb of another infilled 12th-century doorway is visible, presumably part of the entrance to the original nave.

The north side is also buttressed in three unequal bays. It has a 12th-century narrow round-headed window to the left of the west bay and a late 19th-century two-light window to the right. The east bay contains an early 15th-century square-headed window with hoodmould and two cusped lights to the right and a 14th-century cusped window to the left, widened in the 17th or 18th century.

The chancel is reputed to have been rebuilt in 1848 but apparently retains a 12th-century narrow round-headed window on its north side and a late 19th-century three-light Perpendicular-style east window. A tiny blind paired cusped opening directly below the eaves on the north side has probably been reset. A parallel gabled organ chamber, built in 1848, has a cambered west doorway, a segmental-headed window on the south, and a segmental-headed east window with two cusped lights. Several 12th-century architectural fragments have been reused throughout the church.

Interior

The mid-to-late 12th-century west doorway, originally external, has a round-headed arch with two orders of shafts and scalloped capitals (altered in 1842). A roughly contemporary single-splayed window above, also formerly external, has a 3-centred arch. The 15th-century roof is arch-braced with collar beams in seven bays, featuring two tiers of moulded purlins and moulded rafters. Wind-braces form quatrefoil patterns, and bands of Perpendicular traceried panelling run along the tops of the north and south walls, comparable to the Church of St. Mary at Hopesay. All windows have wide single splays, especially pronounced on the 12th-century windows.

A restored 14th-century trefoil-headed piscina lies beneath the south-east window in the nave. A scalloped 12th-century font stands on a later moulded plinth and 19th-century base. A 17th-century oak chest and elaborately carved pulpit back are fixed to the west wall; the pulpit itself was paid for in 1637 according to the Churchwardens' accounts but was removed in 1881. Other fittings and furnishings date from the late 19th century or later, including stained glass of 1872 in the east window. Stained glass by Hardman appears in two of the nave's north windows.

The church contains 18th and 19th-century wall tablets and memorial stones throughout. The most notable monuments are two in the north side of the nave to members of the Edwards family, dating to around 1833 and 1840; the earlier was made by Samuel Stead of Ludlow.

Originally dependent on Clun, Clunbury became a separate parish in 1341.