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SRW | profile | all galleries >> Southern/Middle England >> Wiltshire >> Walks >> Around Swallowcliffe: many times [14] >> St Peter's, Swallowcliffe tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

The (original) walk | The (extended) walk | St Peter's, Swallowcliffe | All Saints, Sutton Mandeville

St Peter's, Swallowcliffe

From the Swallowcliffe website:
The earliest record of the first Church of St Peter was in 1150, by which year it had been built,
as a gift of around 26 acres of land was then made to provide an income for its financial support. No doubt alterations were made over the centuries,
and it is thought that towards in the late 14th century a transept chapel was added on the north side; later the tower may have been amended or rebuilt....

The first church seems to have been built on almost the lowest building site in the village (except for the mill, which is 600 metres downstream).
However, the site would have been chosen as ideal, being next to a stream and a spring (both still there), in a quiet valley with good outlook
and in the centre of the village. Probably the site was satisfactory until, in the late 18th and early 19th century,
economic developments in land use around the church site caused substantial flooding of the church,
up to two feet deep inside the building, with mud over the seats. Although the flooding might have been controlled by local drainage,
the church was demolished, because, by about 1840, the building was declared unsafe for use
and it was feared that any substantial repairs might cause the whole structure to fall....
The new Church of St Peter was built in 1843 on a plot some ten metres higher.

Of the new church, the Rural Dean wrote that it was planned to "adhere as nearly as possible to the old form of the church,
to which the poor villagers were greatly attached", and the new church was sufficiently similar in size,
capacity, orientation and design to be have achieved the villagers' objectives, although it was reversed in plan mirror-fashion.

Dying light
Dying light		 Towering
Towering		 Reflected glory
Reflected glory
Baptismal
Baptismal		 Crusader's tomb
Crusader's tomb		 Falling among thieves
Falling among thieves
Benchmark
Benchmark		 Altarpiece
Altarpiece		 Lectern and organ
Lectern and organ
Christmas tree and pulpit
Christmas tree and pulpit

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