Church of St Swithun and attached railings

Church of St Swithun and attached railings

Parish church, now redundant, located on Church Street in Worcester. Built 1734–36 by architects Thomas and Edward Woodward of Chipping Camden, though the church has earlier origins including a 15th-century tower that was refaced during the 1734–36 rebuilding. The church was made redundant in 1977 and stands on the site of a 13th-century church.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar over brick with a concealed roof. It combines Classical style with Gothic details and is rectangular on plan with a west tower and six bays.

The west tower rises in four stages, marked by string courses and diagonal off-set buttresses. The west entrance features a double six-raised-and-fielded-panel door with a carved lintel surmounted by a fanlight with Perpendicular-type glazing in a tooled architrave with moulded imposts and a cherub's head carved in the keystone. The upper stages have Y-tracery two-light windows with leaded lights to the first floor, blind windows above, and louvred openings to the belfry, all with chamfered mullions and triple-chamfered reveals.

The nave features fluted full-height Doric pilasters between bays and round-arched multi-pane windows with tooled architraves and keystones. The three-bay east end is articulated by Doric pilasters and includes a projecting pedimented bay to the centre pierced by an elaborate Ionic-style Venetian window. A clock set in a pediment sits above the parapet; the outer bays have panelled doors set below tall windows, all similarly treated with round arches.

Interior

The interior is aisleless, having a segmental vault with ribs springing from corbels on each side, each corbel carved with a crowned and winged cherub-head. The vault has bosses with Gothic motifs and a circlet of cherub-heads over the altar. The chancel is divided by screen walls with raised and fielded panelling and outer six-panel doors, ramped up to tall plinths surmounted by Roman Doric columns; panelling continues as a reredos. Similar panelling to the north and south walls rises to approximately 2 metres high. The Venetian window to the interior has Ionic columns and a cornice with acanthus modillions. A canted west gallery stands on square fluted wooden pillars; the staircase has a two-panel door. Windows retain leaded glass, except for late 19th-century stained glass to the east designed by Eginton.

Furnishings include a wrought-iron altar table; box pews throughout, all panelled; a triple-decker pulpit with closed-string winding stairs, a balustrade with fluted columns and a tester with an elaborately carved crown surmounted by a pelican. Altar rails are present. The Mayor's chair has a scrolled sword rest. A round-arched door to the tower has two raised-and-fielded panels. The font is a white marble bowl on a stem.

Monuments

The church contains a good collection of monuments including those to Edward Milton (died 1627), Richard Harris (died 1684), Martha Trovell (died 1711), Anna Colles (died 1716), Henry Hope, grocer (died 1753) by Richard Squire of Worcester, John Clements (died 1781), Thomas Wakeman (died 1794) by W Stephens of Worcester, and John Southan (died 1804). In the tower is a monument to Joseph Withers (died 1741) by CT Withers.

The attached railings and gates to the west end have two levels of rails and spearhead bars; the gates feature a segmental arch.

Significance

St Swithun's is a remarkably complete example of a mid-18th-century church, representative in its plan and internal details of both the 18th-century established church and civil administration and ritual. It forms part of an important group of four churches in Worcester which, in their present form, are largely 18th-century in character: Church of All Saints on Broad Street, Church of St Martin in Cornmarket, and the former Church of St Nicholas at The Cross. Their towers, together with Worcester Cathedral and St Andrew's Tower on Deansway, form the most significant feature of Worcester's skyline. The church is a key building in this part of the city centre, forming a focal point for and having good group value with all the listed buildings in Church Street, St Swithin's Street, and Mealcheapen Street.