Church of St Swithun is a Grade II* listed building in the Buckinghamshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 August 1959. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Swithun

WRENN ID
buried-bronze-russet
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Buckinghamshire
Constituency
Buckingham and Bletchley MP: Callum Anderson (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
19 August 1959
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Swithun, Mursley Road, Swanbourne
OS grid reference
SP 801 272
Coordinates
51.93834, -0.83615
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St. Swithun is a parish church with roots in the 13th century, undergoing significant alterations and restorations through the 15th and early 16th centuries, and a substantial Victorian restoration in 1863. A further, 19th-century porch was added to the south side. It is constructed of semi-dressed coursed rubble limestone with slate roofs.

The west tower, built in the 15th and early 16th centuries, rises in three stages and features a moulded plinth, a battlemented parapet, clasping buttresses, and two-light traceried openings to the bell chamber. On the west side is a small blind round panel, formerly housing a clock, a three-light traceried window, and a moulded doorway with a two-centred arch. The south wall, dated 1630, has 17th-century Perpendicular windows: a three-light window to the left and a four-light window with a round-arched head to the right. A restored 13th-century doorway has a moulded outer arch on slender shafts and a cusped inner arch on chamfered piers. The north side features a four-light Perpendicular window in the west bay, a clerestory of 19th-century round cusped windows, and a plain parapet. The north aisle has three-light cusped windows, one to the west, one to the north with flat heads, and one to the east in a four-centred arch. The north door has a chamfered two-centred arch, moulded spandrels, and a 19th-century hoodmould. The chancel, rebuilt, has three lancet windows with hoodmoulds and a triple lancet to the east.

Inside, a hollow chamfered arch leads to the tower. The 15th-century north arcade comprises three bays with double chamfered arches on wide octagonal piers with moulded caps. A 19th-century arch to a roof-loft is set into the northeast wall of the nave. The original entry to the north aisle has a four-centred arch with carved spandrels and a hood with a carved head stop. A cusped piscina is also present. The chancel arch has a moulded outer arch and jambs, and a chamfered inner arch on moulded corbels. The interior of the east window has slender shafts with moulded caps and flanking blind panels. A pair of cusped piscinae are also present. The church contains a 13th-century font, a 17th-century altar table, and 15th-century wall paintings in the north aisle depicting souls journeying to Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell. Later stained glass is found in the chancel and a west window in the north aisle (dated 1859). Other fittings are from the 19th and 20th centuries. Monuments include brasses to Thomas Adams and his family (1626), commemorating his murder, 19th and 20th-century wall tablets to the Fremantle family in the chancel, and early 18th-century wall tablets to Thomas and Ann Deverel (d. 1699) and members of the Adams family.

Local climate

Church of St Swithun receives an average of 740 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 75% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 83% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 55% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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