Church Of St Swithin

The Church of St. Swithin is an Anglican parish church dating back to at least 1100. The chancel windows are from the 13th and 15th centuries, and the nave windows were likely inserted in the early 17th century. The church was restored in 1882. It is constructed of rubble stone with a sprocketed stone slate roof, featuring coped gables and saddlestones with cross finials.

The church consists of a nave, a north porch, a south porch canopy, a bellcote at the west end, and a chancel with an 1882 vestry. The nave has pilaster buttresses and a 12th-century string course, with walls raised in the early 17th century, incorporating two 3-light stone mullion windows with square hoodmolds on the south side. A large, open timberwork north porch with a gable and an octagonal-spire bellcote replaced a west tower that was added before 1825 and subsequently removed in 1882. The south porch canopy is formed by a large gabled hood resting on lower stages of stepped buttresses. Both north and south porches contain exceptionally fine Norman carved doorways and tympana. The north doorway has three orders with differing chevron mouldings, carved abaci, and capitals, and its tympanum depicts the Harrowing of Hell; the tympanum may be a later addition. The south porch is of a single date, featuring guilloche, pellet, and beakhead mouldings continuing down the jambs. Its tympanum could be the earliest representation of the Coronation of the Virgin, surrounded by symbols of the Evangelists. The chancel has a round-headed light on the south side and a small lancet to the north, the latter obscured externally by the vestry, with a deep, long splayed inner reveal. The east window is a 3-light Perpendicular design, copied in 1882 from the west window.

The interior is plainly plastered. The nave includes a 5-bay roof with arched wind braces on the lower tier, while the fifth bay and chancel have a panelled, faceted ceiling. A late 16th-century font is accompanied by a 1662 cover. The interior was refitted in 1882. Notable features include several marble wall monuments, one from the late 17th century, and a 17th-century shield brass on the floor near the north door. The church was initially called St. Mary’s in the 12th century and was rededicated to St. Swithin by 1735.