The Church of St Barnabas is the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church of

Swanmore Swanmore is a rural village and civil parish situated in the Meon Valley, Hampshire, England, close to Bishop's Waltham. Swanmore was originally set up to provide homes for workers in local brickworks. As such, the houses in the village are ma ...

near

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. It was constructed in 1844 and is a grade II listed building. The church is under the ecclesiastic jurisdiction of the Diocese of Portsmouth and the

Deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

of Bishop's Waltham.

History

The church was constructed in 1844 and was designed by

Benjamin Ferrey Benjamin Ferrey List of Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA Royal Institute of British Architects, FRIBA (1 April 1810 – 22 August 1880) was an English architect who worked mostly in the Gothic revival architecture, Gothic Re ...

in the Neo-Norman architectural style. The church was originally established under the ecclesiastic oversight of the

Diocese of Winchester The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. Founded in 660 AD, it is one of the older dioceses in England. It once covered the Kingdom of Wessex, many times its present size. Today it is most of th ...

. In 1846, the Church of England's

Church Commissioners The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...

petitioned the

Supreme Governor of the Church of England The Supreme Governor of the Church of England is the titular head of the Church of England, a position which is vested in the British monarch.

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

to merge the nearby parishes of Droxford and Bishops Waltham into St Barnabas's in Swanmore as they had agreed with the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...

, which the Queen granted. The vestry and chancel were extended in 1863 with a tower and new windows being installed in 1876. In 1927, St Barnabas' was transferred from the Diocese of Winchester to the Diocese of Portsmouth following the creation of the new independent Diocese of Portsmouth. The church was renovated in 2011 with a new boiler being installed as well as the tower's roof being re-tiled. The church has a graveyard attached to it, however it is full and no longer open to future burials though it does retain an area for interment of cremated ashes. It is also used for concerts.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord , 50, 56, 39, N, 1, 10, 52, W, type:landmark_region:GB-HAM, display=title

Swanmore, Church of Saint Barnabas