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Accessing Scotland's Past Project
Event ID 562363
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Accessing Scotland's Past Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/562363
Swinton Parish Church was built after 1100, but of this early church only fragments of the east, south and west walls can still be identified amongst the later fabric.
The church was first significantly altered in 1593, and it is thought that the pulpit was moved at this time to its present location in the south wall. An inscription in the west porch commemorates this phase of rebuilding.
In 1782, an aisle was added. Known as the 'Feuar's Aisle', it provided seating for 25 of Swinton's feu-holders, the names of whom are recorded in an inscription within the church.
Further alterations in 1796 and 1800 were followed by major rebuilding work in 1837. The laird's loft, which allowed the local landowners, the Swintons, to sit apart from the rest of the congregation, may date from this period, though its origins may be earlier.
By the 1900s, the church was becoming increasingly dilapidated, and in 1910 the architect Sir Robert Lorimer was employed to carry out repairs. At this time, the walls were raised, the church was re-roofed and re-floored, and new fittings added.
Throughout much of its history, the church has enjoyed a close association with the Swinton family, who were the local landowners. Heraldic panels displaying the Swinton coat-of-arms, which features three boars' heads, have been built into the fabric of the walls, and within the church there is an effigy of a knight named Sir Alan Swinton. This is said to be twelfth century in origin, but stylistic details suggest a later, sixteenth- or seventeenth-century date. The Swinton family continued to act as benefactors into the twentieth century, when they donated a carved wooden pulpit at the time of the 1910 restoration.
A fifteenth-century bell survives at Swinton. This is known locally as the 'Flodden Bell', and is said to have rung the death knell for those Scots who fell at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.
Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project
