CHURCH OF ST SWITHUN

Overview

Location

Details

CLUNBURY C.P. CLUNBURY SO 38 SE 4/55 Church of St. Swithun - 21.3.68 (Formerly listed as Church of St. Swithin) GV I

Chapel-of-ease, now parish church. Early and late C12, C14 and C15 with minor additions and alterations of 1842 and 1848. Restored by James Piers St. Aubyn in 1881. Uncoursed limestone rubble with chamfered plinth to chancel and ashlar dressings; stone slate roofs to nave and porch and slates to chancel and vestry, which have coped verges on carved stone kneelers. Nave; chancel; west tower; south porch and organ chamber. Tower: probably late C12 in 2 stages on chamfered plinth; embattled parapet with string course below and another below belfry windows. Louvred windows with 3-centred arches to belfry on east and north and cusped windows on south and west, latter with square head. Similar square-headed window with single broad cusped light to first stage on south. Inset C18 sundial above retains gnomon but inscription had flaked off at time of resurvey (July 1986). Pointed double-chamfered west doorway looks c.1200 but may be of 1842. Short clasping buttresses at north-east and south-east angles are actually part of west wall of earlier nave. Pyramidal slate cap and brass weathercock. Nave: probably early C12, extended westwards in mid-to late C12 and eaves raised in C15 (original eaves line clearly visible on south side). South side is buttressed in 3 unequal bays and has narrow round-headed Romanesque window immediately to right of porch. Mid-C14 pointed window with paired broad cinquefoil-headed lancets and quatrefoil above in middle bay. Right bay has early C15 square- headed window with 2 trefoil-headed lights to left and an early C14 window of paired cusped lancets to right. Contemporary segmental pointed arched recess below has grave slab with incised floriated cross, which although of roughly the same date as the arch, is apparently not in situ. Porch (1881) is timber framed with fretted bargeboards and ceramic cross to gable. Restored C12 single-stepped round-headed doorway with imposts and hoodmould. West jamb of another (infilled) C12 doorway is visible to west of C14 window in middle bay and presumably is part of entrance to original nave. North side: also buttressed in 3 unequal bays with C12 narrow round- headed window to left of west bay and late C19 two-light window to right. East bay has early C15 square-headed window with hoodmould and 2 cusped lights to right and a C14 cusped window to left, widened in C17 or C18. Chancel: reputed to have been rebuilt in 1848 has apparently C12 narrow round-headed window on north side and a late C19 three-light Perpendicular- style east window. Tiny blind paired cusped opening directly below eaves on north side has probably been reset. Parallel gabled organ chamber (1848) has cambered west doorway, segmental-headed window on south and a segmental-headed east window of 2 cusped lights. Several C12 architectural fragments have been reused throughout church. Interior: mid-to late C12 west doorway (formerly external) has round-headed arch with 2 orders of shafts and scalloped capitals (altered 1842). Roughly contemporary single-splayed window above with 3-centred arch also formerly external. C15 arch-braced collar beam roof in 7 bays with 2 tiers of moulded purlins and moulded rafters. Wind- braces forming quatrefoil patterns and bands of Perpendicular traceried panelling (c.f. Church of St. Mary , Hopesay) running along tops of north and south walls. Wide single splays to all windows, especially pronounced to C12 windows. Restored C14 trefoil-headed piscina beneath south-east window in nave. Scalloped C12 font on later moulded plinth and C19 base. C17 oak chest and elaborately carved pulpit back, fixed to west wall at time of resurvey (July 1986), from pulpit paid for in 1637 (Churchwardens' accounts), which was removed in 1881. Other fittings and furnishings late C19 or later including stained glass of 1872 in east window. Stained glass by Hardman in 2 of nave north windows. Monuments: C18 and C19 wall tablets and memorials throughout, most notable being 2 in nave (north side) to members of Edwards family of c.1833 and c.1840, former by Samuel Stead of Ludlow. Originally dependent on Clun, Clunbury became a separate parish in 1341. B.O.E. pp. 109-10; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 5 (1901) pp. 383-8.

Listing NGR: SO3709680658

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

257560

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cranage, DHS , An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire, (1908), 383-8
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 109-110

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.