Swinton Parish Church And Churchyard

Swinton Parish Church and Churchyard

This parish church was rebuilt in 1729 on the site of an earlier church, which itself had been restored in 1593. The Feuar's aisle was added in 1782 and extended westwards in 1837. Small improvements were carried out in 1796 and 1800. Robert Lorimer undertook substantial external and internal alterations in 1910.

The building forms a near L-plan with an original rectangular body running east-west to the south, the Feuar's aisle centred to the north with a later vestry beyond, and later infill in the re-entrant angle to the northwest. The Swinton family burial ground occupies the re-entrant angle to the northeast. The church is constructed in pointed sandstone rubble with squared and snecked tooled sandstone to the porches and tooled sandstone dressings throughout. The quoins are tooled, droved in part. Most openings are square-headed with chamfered surrounds and chamfered cills.

The south elevation, which serves as the entrance front, is of seven bays. A projecting gabled porch sits in the outer left bay with sandstone carving aligned at the centre and a modern sundial above; a timber panelled door is set in the return to the left. A second projecting gabled porch, offset to the right of centre, has a timber door in its return to the left. Large gabled windows breaking the eaves occupy two bays to the left and one bay to the right. A single window appears in the penultimate bay to the outer right, and an exterior stair with a timber panelled door leads to the laird's loft in the outer right bay; this doorway has an architraved surround surmounted by a pediment carved with boar motifs representing the Swinton coat of arms.

The east elevation has a gabled bay with a single window at the outer left, and a single window in the recessed Feuar's aisle to the right. A coped sandstone wall encloses the Swinton family burial ground to the front. A lower single-storey vestry occupies the outer right.

The north or rear elevation displays a plate-traceried window in a projecting vestry adjoining the central Feuar's aisle. A coped sandstone wall enclosing the burial ground is recessed to the left, and a large gabled window breaking the eaves overlooks the nave behind. A gabled infill, offset to the right of centre, has single windows flanking a central stack; a boarded timber door in a single-storey addition is centred at ground level.

The west elevation features a pointed-arched window with Y-tracery centred in a gabled wing to the right, surmounted by a stepped and finalled sandstone belfry containing a bell dated 1499. A pyramidal-capped square-plan wallhead sundial sits to the outer right. A single window occupies the later wing adjoined to the left.

Throughout, the glazing is predominantly plain leaded with some stained glass; a decorative stained glass window dates to 1913. The vestry has timber sash and case windows with round-arched heads. Grey slate roofs with raised stone skews and coped wallhead stack to the north complete the exterior; the rainwater goods are replacements.

The interior of the west porch features boarded timber dado and tiled flooring. Above the door is a sandstone plaque inscribed 'Mak no delay to tvrn to the Lord ANNO 1593, rebuilt 1729'. The east porch has boarded timber dado. The nave contains a parquet timber floor, boarded timber dado, and plain plasterwork with replacement light fittings. Three columns on timber-panelled plinths divide the later aisles from the original body of the church, with the outer columns engaged. Timber pews throughout face a pulpit platform centred in the south wall; a carved timber pulpit and timber communion table are accompanied by decorative screens enclosing the sides, with carved timber boars surmounting octagonal piers. A timber-panelled balcony with Swinton coats of arms encloses the laird's loft to the east. Various memorial tablets to the Swinton family are present, including a sandstone tablet dated 1782 signed by the feuars. An early 20th-century organ with decorative timber detailing sits in the choir. A sandstone aumbry with shelf is built into the north wall of the east aisle. A sandstone effigy sits in a segmental-arched recess to the left of the pulpit, with a round-arched panel above carved with boar motifs and inscribed 'hic iacet Alanvs Svintonvs Miles de eodem'. The vestry to the north has boarded timber dado, timber-panelled doors, and a part-boarded timber ceiling.

The graveyard contains irregularly-spaced gravestones from the 18th and 19th centuries, including table-top monuments, classically-detailed headstones, finalled columns, and square-plan monuments on tiered plinths.

The boundary wall is of low coped rubble, heavily pointed in places. Square-plan weathered sandstone piers with pyramidal caps flank the entrance to the southwest, with two-leaf iron gates bearing the Swinton coat of arms (dated 1964) hung between them. A hooped iron pedestrian gate stands to the southeast.