Church of St. Peter Swallowcliffe

Swallowcliffe church was held by Robert Giffard in the 12th century and there is evidence of a building in existence in 1150 in Common Lane situated beside the stream. From 1222 Swallowcliffe was in the Dean’s peculiar and therefore free from the jurisdiction of the diocese. It had been gifted to Heytesbury church by Gerrard Gifford and was referenced by Bishop Jocelyn in his 1152 Charter.

The control by the Dean continued, with some short gaps, until 1840 when the Cathedrals Act was passed. A chaplain appointed by the prebendary served at Swallowcliffe in the 13th century and in 1791 William Easton was curate and prebendary. In 1844 the curacy was considered perpetual and by 1868 it became a vicarage. It had passed to the Bishop of Salisbury by 1883. The vicarage was held with Ansty from 1889 and united with it in 1924; in 1975 Tisbury was added. The benefice of Tisbury and Swallowcliffe with Ansty was then formed. Chilmark rectory was added in 1976 and the benefice of Tisbury established with a team rector.

A house was probably provided for the curates in the 17th century by the prebendary and there is mention of a vicarage north of Rookery Lane in 1797; by 1837 a stone house with tiled roof was built south of Rookery Lane and the incumbents lived there until the property was sold in 1975.

Land was conveyed for St. John’s Hospital in 1335 and Wilton hospital was allowed to retain the lands given to them in the chantry licence until fairly recently. In 1843 it still held 26 acres of arable land in Swallowcliffe as well as a cottage known as ‘Priory Cottage’, sold in 1952 and now demolished.

In 1408 the list of clergy within the parish was one vicar, admitted by the Dean but presented by the Prebendary; one deacon, provided by the Prebendary and one chantry chaplain, provided by Wilton hospital. The last two were required to take daily services in the church.

After the reformation the prebendaries were usually less important clergymen who were also vicars of other country parishes. They were put in place by the Dean but often delegated their responsibilities to the curates. In Swallowcliffe they leased the prebendal lands and parsonage, keeping a small house and an acre of land for the curates. The curates were paid out of the lease income. One such was Dr. Thomas Smith, prebendary in 1691, who would not swear allegiance to William and Mary and was deprived of the prebendary.

After the Cathedrals Act of 1840, the existing prebendary who at the time was Reverend W.H. Pearson continued to nominate the curates; the last was Reverend E.C. Tudor as vicar in 1882.

In 1649 the parsonage consisted of a hall, kitchen, buttery, three lodging chambers, a milk house, barn and stable with five bays and was on the site of the present Parsonage Farm. The smaller accommodation allocated to the curate was either on the site of ‘Manor Cottage’ or on the glebe land behind the Royal Oak, across the stream from the churchyard. By 1829 Colt Hoare records this property as ‘in ruins’.

During the 16th and 17th centuries Swallowcliffe church was served irregularly and some parishioners did not receive communion; it was also recorded that three men regularly played skittles at the time of evening prayer c.1600. By 1634 the curate of Ansty officiated sometimes and the Rector at Sutton Mandeville served in the 1770s and 1780s. At least two of the curates became prebendaries.

T.W. Marshall, prebendary in the 19th century published Notes on the Episcopal polity of the Holy Catholic Church in 1844 and then converted to Roman Catholicism, resigning his prebendary. From 1841-1877 the curates, and from 1868 the vicars, served the church at Ansty as well.

On Census Sunday in 1851 a total of 190 people attended the morning service and in 1864 Sunday services were held alternately in the mornings and the afternoons with an average attendance of 130-40 worshippers. Weekday services were usually held on Wednesday mornings and communion was received by an average of 30 people on Sundays and celebrated every 6th or 7th Sunday.

The property of the prebend was taken over in 1853 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and valued at £980.

There is little information about the appearance of the older church but Colt Hoare says in 1829:

 ‘The church...is rather picturesque in its form...in my own opinion the very short column indicates the character of Anglo-Norman architecture’. Colt Hoare also states that there were only two of the original Norman arches in 1829; the rest having been converted into pointed arches in the 14th century.

H. Shortt, curator of Salisbury Museum in 1972 commented ‘the earliest surviving remains in the old church appear to be the seven pillars in the nave almost certainly Norman – likewise the two round arches joining the three pillars of the north arcade.’

The church was built of coursed ashlar and had a chancel and north transept, nave with north and south aisles and a north west tower. The 12th century nave piers may have survived to the 19th century. It is possible that in the 14th century the south nave may have been rebuilt using these earlier piers and the transept with the three light north window was added at this time. Later the west nave window was inserted as well as the crenelated tower and buttresses. The lower part of the tower formed a porch entered through a 12th century doorway and this was reset into the north wall.

The church however, was subject to flooding and was rebuilt in 1843 using much of the old material. The accounts of the flooding describe the water rising as high as the seats sometimes leaving mud an inch thick on them. The cause of the flooding is not known although it had been blamed on the intermittent operation of the tannery that owned the watercourses, the collapse of the sluice gates at Pond Close and the sporadic use of the mill. Hoare suggests that the church was sinking into the water bearing soil of the site. There was a drainage channel from the west side of the church passing through an opening in the west churchyard wall and this could have become clogged.

Whatever the cause of the flooding the intention to rebuild was established by 1840 when an application was made to the Church Building Society for help with the costs. By 1842 the old church had been declared unsafe, the plans and fund raising completed so work began and it was hoped it would take nine months at a cost of £1,260. The new site was given by Lord Pembroke and was part of the meadow known as ‘Poor’s Mead’ named after a local family called ‘Poore’. The deed is dated 1st August 1843, after the new building had been erected (1842-43) but before the consecration. The Lambeth Palace Library holds a document stating the intention of rebuilding the newer church in the old Norman style ‘but being a valuable specimen of its style to preserve as much as possible of the original form...’

It was built in the 12th century style to designs by G.G. Scott and W.B. Moffat and, most importantly, the location was moved to higher ground, north of Rookery Lane. This new building consisted of a chancel with south transept, an aisled nave, crenelated and buttressed south west tower with a conical spirelet and south doorway. A 14th century stone effigy of a knight, probably Sir Thomas West, was removed from the nave of the old church to the porch of the new.

Scott had a reputation for tooling old stone, in this case Chilmark stone, and making it look like new; this was sometimes criticised. When he refers to introducing the piers and arches from the old church it is not known if he meant simply the design or the material as well. Traditionally and locally they talk about ‘moving’ the church.

The similarity between the older and the newer church are debatable, perhaps due to the larger scale of the new building and the newer design of the windows. In the more recent layout the tower and entrance were moved from the north to the south side, making the church look good from the frontal approach. There are three monumental stone memorials in the new porch, an east window memorial to Sir Sydney Herbert, a younger half-brother to Lord Pembroke who had provided the land, a west window in memory of George Blandford given in 1870 and donations from Morgan Dove Blandford, the father of George, who had been a churchwarden; he gave a chalice, two patens and two alms dishes. The vestry and side windows are in memory of Reverend J.H. Samler and his two daughters; he had been a vicar at Swallowcliffe for thirty years.

The fonts are said to have both been in the old church; before 1940 the small font stood outside the church but was then moved inside and there is a stone under the bell ropes thought to be a 13th century coffin lid.

In the 1220s the church owned little furnishings, namely books, some plate, vestments and the stem of a chalice that needed repairing. In 1553 the King’s Commissioners took plate and left a chalice for parish use. New plate, hallmarked 1828, was given in 1843.

In 1553 there were three bells; a treble replaced in I632, a tenor replaced in 1881 and another recast in 1846; all of these bells had moved from the old church to the new.

Parish registers survive from 1737 with some gaps and can be viewed, other than those in current use, at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham during normal opening hours.

Recent work includes the removal of some seats from the south transept in 1952 to create a vestry, renewal of the nave and transept roofs in 1966, and in 1967 the choir seats were removed from the chancel; the paving of the church was renewed, the altar was moved three feet away from the wall and the sanctuary was extended three feet westwards.

In 1976 the tower had problems as the bells were not safe to raise due to defects in the wooden wheels, stays, stops and sliders. The tower only had a temporary roof and there are cracks in the spiral stairs.

The village is called ‘Swallowcliffeacley’ on the 1785-6 register transcript and ‘Swallowcliffeakely’ on the cover of Lord Pembroke’s 1742-1881 court book.