St Mary's Church, Swinbrook

St Mary's is the church of Swinbrook, a small village on the River Windrush about 3 km east of Burford. It is a medieval church with a tower of about 1822, famous for two families: the Fettiplaces, whose stacked effigies fill the chancel, and the Mitfords, four of whose daughters are buried in the churchyard. It is listed Grade II*.

History

St Mary's has eleventh-century origins, a twelfth-century north aisle and a south aisle probably of the thirteenth century, with a tower added in about 1822 on projecting buttresses.

The Fettiplaces

For three centuries the Fettiplaces were the great family here, one of the leading families of Oxfordshire. They built their mansion at Swinbrook in the 1490s; it was pulled down in the nineteenth century, and the family died out in the late eighteenth. Their memory is in the church, where the chancel walls are lined with their monuments from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

War damage

In 1940 an exploding land mine blew out the large east window. The vicar of the time gathered the fragments of medieval glass from the chancel and set them into the east window of the south aisle, which records the bomb damage.

The Mitfords

The Mitfords came to the parish in the twentieth century: Asthall Manor, nearby, once a Fettiplace seat, later became the Mitford family home. Four of the six sisters are buried in the churchyard, Nancy, Unity, Diana and Pamela, and their parents, Lord and Lady Redesdale, are buried there too. Their brother Tom, killed in Burma in 1945, has a memorial inside the church.

What to see

The Fettiplace monuments are the thing to see. On the left of the chancel, two monuments, of about 1613 and 1686, each show three reclining figures stacked on shelves, one above another, propped on their elbows under ornate round arches: six effigies in all. On the right, a third monument, of 1743 by James Annis, is a marble bust against drapery and cherubs under a broken pediment. There are Fettiplace brasses too.

Inside, look also for:

• the fifteenth-century choir stalls with misericords;
• the chancel arch and nave arcades on Romanesque columns;
• the seventeenth-century pulpit and the fifteenth-century font;
• the fragments of medieval glass in the south aisle window, and the hatchment memorial to Joan Goddard on a pillar in the nave;
• a tablet on the north aisle wall to a naval officer lost with his submarine off Newfoundland in 1941.

In the churchyard, the headstones of Nancy, Unity and Diana stand near the porch, while Pamela and their parents are buried elsewhere in the churchyard; three groups of chest tombs are listed in their own right.

Visiting

The Burford benefice says the church is open throughout the year from 10am to 5pm daily, with a service every Sunday at 11am, so come outside that hour to look round quietly; the churchyard is always open. The church tells the National Churches Trust there is level access to the main areas and on-street parking at the church and within 250m, and that dogs are welcome. There is no toilet at the church; the Swan Inn nearby is the place for food. Please be respectful at the graves.

Getting there

Swinbrook has no public car park, and the lane through the village is narrow, so park considerately or walk in from Burford, where the council's Guildenford car park is free (most bays limited to four hours, the rest to ten).

On foot, Swinbrook, Fulbrook and Widford, a 4.3-mile loop from the Swan, ends at St Mary's along the Windrush from St Oswald's at Widford. The 6-mile Burford, Fulbrook and Widford walk passes within about 700m at Widford, and walkers often make the detour to Swinbrook.

Nearby

The Swan Inn, on the river a short walk away, has food and rooms, and the Three Horseshoes at Asthall is a little further down the valley. St Oswald's, Widford, alone in its field, is 700m west, and Burford, with St John the Baptist and Burford Priory, is 3 km upstream. Our story on famous people with Cotswold connections has more on the Mitford family.