St Swithun's Church is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in the town of

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

The church was a product of the Revd. Alexander Morden Bennett's long campaign of

High Anglican A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although used in connection with various Christian ...

church building in Bournemouth, beginning in 1851 with his own church of St. Peter, the mother church of St Swithun. Together with St. Michael's Church, St. Swithun's was one of the town centre's churches to be designed by

Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

was built from 1876 to 1877 and the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

was between 1891 and 1892. Other parts of the church such as the

vestries A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spent nearly one-fi ...

were added 1913 by H. E Hawker, a local architect. On 1 August 1974, the church was designated a

grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. By the 1990s the church was disused and deteriorating; most fittings were removed by 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 ...

before 1999. At that date it was leased by Bournemouth Family Church (later, Citygate Church), an independent

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

organisation which later bought the building. The interior was re-floored, with additions built to the north, the remaining fittings moved to the sanctuary and the orientation reversed. In 2014, St Swithun's returned to use as an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church, when it was purchased as the site of a church plant in the Charismatic Evangelical HTB Church network. The plant was later rebranded as Lovechurch and further planted to two other churches in Bournemouth, but the name St. Swithun's is still referenced as the site name. In October 2020, the church received a government grant in support of the church's work in the community during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Gallery

File:Bournemouth, former parish church of St. Swithun - geograph.org.uk - 631215.jpg, The church seen from the northeast from Manor Road. File:Bournemouth, St. Swithun's church in snow - geograph.org.uk - 1150571.jpg, St. Swithun's church in snow. File:South Face of the Church of Saint Swithun, Bournemouth (Detail).jpg, South Face of the Church. File:Southwest View of the Church of Saint Swithun, Bournemouth.jpg, Southwest View of the Church. File:East Face of the Church of Saint Swithun, Bournemouth.jpg, East Face of the Church of Saint Swithun. File:Northeast View of the Church of Saint Swithun, Bournemouth.jpg, Northeast View of the Church. File:Lychgate of the Church of Saint Swithun, Bournemouth.jpg,

Lychgate A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

of the Church. File:War Memorial outside the Church of Saint Swithun, Bournemouth (02).jpg, The war memorial outside the church. File:Epigraph on the West Face of the Church of Saint Swithun, Bournemouth.jpg, Epigraph on the West Face of the Church. File:North Face of the Church of Saint Swithun, Bournemouth (02).jpg, North Face of the Church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Swithun's Church, Bournemouth Church of England church buildings in Dorset 19th-century Church of England church buildings Churches in Bournemouth Grade II listed churches in Dorset

History

Gallery

See also

References