Church Of St Swithin

The Church of St Swithin is an Anglican parish church dating to 1876-8, designed by H. Weaver of Devizes. The design incorporates earlier medieval fabric. The church is constructed of Malmstone with limestone dressings, formerly rendered, and has tiled roofs. The building consists of a nave, a south porch, and a chancel, with a vestry on the north side. Features include two-light trefoil-headed windows and three-light east and west windows. Some walling and window surrounds are medieval, likely from the 13th century, with grooved stones reused as putlog holes. The south porch door has two orders of chamfering with a hoodmould. A wooden steeple stands central to the nave, topped with a square, louvred bell chamber and an octagonal turret carrying a lead-covered spire. Crosses are positioned on the gable ends.

The interior walls are plastered. The nave roof is a six-bay structure with billet-moulded tie beams supported by large wall brackets that support the steeple. The chancel arch features Bath stone engaged half-columns and carved stiff-leaf capitals, possibly of medieval origin, in grey limestone. The chancel includes a south priest's door and a facetted boarded vault. A 13th-century piscina is present, with a nodding ogee hood, shelf, and spirelets, alongside medieval two-seat sedilia.

The church holds a range of fittings, including a 19th-century font with a tub-shaped bowl, a running guilloche, a short column, and a 13th-century round spurred base. A 17th-century panelled pulpit, distinguished by its finely worked necking and cornice, sits upon a 19th-century stone base. The altar rail is constructed of 17th-century turned balusters, and six 19th-century iron lamp brackets are attached to the nave pews.

Memorial tablets and monuments are found throughout the church. In the chancel, four tablets commemorate Rev. Daniel Lancaperan, Rev. John Cutler (died 1833 - by Harrison of Devizes), Eliza Cookson (daughter of a Ludgate Hill druggist, died 1755), and Rev. Henry Simcox (died 1873), with the latter being a brass plate on slate. In the nave, there are four wall monuments. On the north side, a white marble tablet with pilasters and an urn is dedicated to Thomas Lewis of Wedhampton and his wife (died 1814). The south side features a simple marble tablet to Jane Patrick (died 1851), a limestone aedicule with fluted columns, a broken ogee pediment, a central torch, a putto, and a painted panel to Robert Hayward of Marden (died 1722). Another limestone aedicule with a raised and painted panel, flanked by fluted pilasters, cornices, and a swept terminal carrying a pineapple/acorn, marks the grave of Robert Amor (died 1740). Two brasses record 10 burials between 1786 and 1891, and Frederick Butler, died 1900 in the South African War. A painted metal creed is positioned above the door. Furniture includes Riddel posts behind the altar and two 17th-century armchairs. Glass in the north window is by Kempe.