Inglesham Church, aka The Church of St John the Baptist, yet another 13th century church, in the borough of Swindon, that I’m including in this Swindon in 50 More Buildings series. The first one from that era covered here is the Church of St Andrew over in North Swindon. Then there’s the church of St Michael and All The Angels in Highworth. And to come is St Mary’s church in Rodbourne Cheney
A Grade I listing since 1955.
An ancient painted wonder …
… is how the church’s website describes it. I must confess here that I’ve not seen it myself but I trust that the photos below, sent to me by a chum, will give you a sense of that. The website describes it as an exquisite, beautiful and fascinating church. It stands on a gentle rise of land above waterside meadows near the Thames – a spit from the Thames Path. Thus it’s a frequent stopping point for walkers.
William Morris
One point of note about this church is that the well-known designer William Morris (he of Kelmscott Manor) oversaw the restoration in the 19th century. He ensured the church kept its original mediaeval identity.
Paintings
Also making this church stand out is an incredible series of paintings. Created from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century, they cover the walls. They’re often painted one over another and they’re several layers thick in places. The website tells us that it’s not always easy to puzzle out the subjects. But it seems that you can see the fifteenth-century angels above the chancel arch. Also, an early fourteenth-century doom on the east wall of the north aisle, and several nineteenth-century texts, as well as a thirteenth-century masonry pattern throughout the chancel.
Further, the church boasts an unusual and powerful Saxon stone carving of the Madonna and Child set in the south wall.
The woodwork of the roofs, the fifteenth-century screens and the seventeenth and eighteenth-century pulpit and box pews are all original to the church, and their arrangement is still much as it would have been in Oliver Cromwell’s time.
