Church Of St Birinus

The Church of St. Birinus is an Anglican parish church dating to 1894, designed by C.E. Ponting. It is constructed of brick in various bonds, with a tiled roof. The architectural style is Arts and Crafts Free Gothic. The church comprises a nave, chancel, a north organ chamber and vestry, a south-west porch, and a west tower.

A timber-framed porch, set on a brick plinth, is located to the left of the south side. The nave’s south side has four round-arched, Perpendicular-style, four-light windows recessed within brick arches. Buttresses are positioned between the windows, extending upwards to gablets; the buttress to the right incorporates a hipped gablet with a niche containing a statue of St. Birinus. The south side of the chancel has two round-arched, three-light, Perpendicular-style windows within brick arches. The east window features a segmental-arched, five-light window with reticulated tracery, a hoodmould, and a deep gable. The north side has an organ chamber under a catslide roof, with loop-hole windows. The north side of the nave mirrors the south side, featuring four four-light windows. The vestry to the right has a gabled roof and a three-light, leaded, fixed window. The west tower is timber-framed, with a five-light wooden mullioned and transomed window. It has a coved eaves cornice with carved wooden brackets, wooden eaves with carved rosettes, a date of 1894, and a shingled pyramidal roof with a louvred bellstage.

Inside, double wooden doors are set within segmental brick arches with gauged brick cornices and pilasters, leading to the porch and vestry. The nave has a barrel-vaulted roof with rib panelling, and fielded panelling to the walls up to sill level. A segmental brick arch, originally providing access, connects the nave to the tower. The chancel has a similarly barrel-vaulted ceiling with more elaborate rib panelling. A brick arched piscina is located on the south side of the nave. A limestone reredos is present, and a cylindrical stone font stands at the west end of the nave. The church contains fine Arts and Crafts stained glass; the east window depicts the life of Christ in memory of the Ferryman family circa 1900, and a north nave window commemorates Robinsons of Redlynch House circa 1900. These windows are unsigned.

The church was originally built as a chapel of ease to the Church of St. Lawrence, Downton, and cost £2200 to construct.