St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate, Winchester

Postcode: SO23 9JP Grid Ref: SU482291 CHR No: 641362

Date of survey: 21st February 2025

 

Photo 1: Exterior of St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate

The church sits over Kingsgate, a city gate which is on or close to the site of one of the Roman gates. The present gateway is probably late 14th century and has flanking walkways dating to the 18th century. St Swithun’s is first mentioned in 1264, when it was burned down by citizens in a dispute with the Cathedral Priory who held the church. It is entered from a timber-framed and tile-hung early 16th century stairway, topped by a weatherboarded bellcote. The church is Grade I listed, with a simple, undivided interior and a medieval single-framed roof. It contains memorials and stained glass from other Winchester churches, such as St Maurice and St Peter Chesil. Map 1, below, shows an excerpt from the Winchester Town Plan which was published in 1873; the wider area around the church is available by following the link from the image. (Pop-ups may need to be authorised.)

Map 1: An excerpt from the 1873 Winchester Town Plan (Scale: 1:500)

Graffiti Summary

Most of the graffiti found in the church consists of names and initials, sometimes dated, and these are concentrated around the entrance doorway, and the windows on the south side. Although it is believed that in the medieval period many of the pilgrims coming to the cathedral would have entered through this gateway and, as the guide book says “given thanks in this church for a safe journey, possibly to St Swithun in his niche by the altar”, there are surprisingly few crosses, which are common finds in other churches associated with medieval pilgrimage. This may be because the fabric has been much altered and such marks have not survived. We also know that by the 17th century the church had fallen into disrepair ... Much of the graffiti found may well date to this post-medieval period, and certainly there are two instances of names dated to the 1650s. The church was restored soon after this and its bells were re-hung in 1677. Although not graffiti as such, the survey also recorded the carpenters’ marks which can be seen on the exposed timber framework.

The church interior

Map 2: Church plan showing main areas of graffiti. (See enlarged version to read the numbers.)

Graffiti is commonly found at the entrances to churches, made by those who wished to mark their presence as they entered a holy space. Here, there is graffiti around the north doorway, which can be seen in Photo 2, on the far right. (Apart from photo 3, all have an enlarged version which is linked to the picture on this webpage.)

Photo 2: The interior looking west with the north doorway on the right.

The north doorway is also one of the few places within the church where crosses are found, and there are two on the west jamb (Photo 3 shows one example) and a very faint one, obscured by layers of paint and limewash on the outside wall, west of the doorway.

Photo 3: A cross on the west jamb of the north doorway

There is a lot of graffiti around the south windows, and the lower parts of the stone surrounds are very worn, weathered and gouged. This may have been caused by exposure to the elements when the building had fallen into disrepair in the 17th century, or the result of human activity. Much of the graffiti may have been made when the church was out of use, and some is actually dated to this time, for example, directly beneath south window 2, on the stone surround, is incised the name T. Phillips, with the date 1650 (Photo 4).

 

Photo 4: South window 2. T Phillips 1650

On the north wall, between the windows, is a sixteenth century niche bearing the arms of Winchester diocese (Photo 5).

 

Photo 5: Niche on north wall.

On the horizontal surface of the shelf, now at a height which is hard to see from the current floor level, is a name dated to 1652, that of John Aylward (Photo 6). It would be interesting to carry out more research to see if there is any link between him and others whose initials have been found.

  

Photo 6: North wall, niche. John Aylward 1652

The Stairway

The timber framework of the entrance staircase dates to c1500 (ref: church guidebook) (Photo 7).

Photo 7: Timber-framed entrance staircase.

On the timber uprights at each side of the top of the stairs, are tear-shaped burn marks, which are also known as taper burn marks (Photo 8). These taper burn marks are thought to have been made deliberately, to protect the building, possibly against fire. Such marks are sometimes explained as being made accidentally, caused by candles placed against surfaces, but experimental archaeology by Dean and Hill (2014) show that these marks are difficult to create accidentally and are more likely to have been made deliberately.

Photo 8: Timber upright, west side of top of stairs. Taper burn marks

There are some carpenters’ marks visible on the 16th century timber framework above the north doorway. There is a mark consisting of 4 parallel lines on the west side, and a VI shape on the east (Photo 9).

Photo 9: Carpenters’ marks above north doorway. Arrows show locations on east and west sides.

The Undercroft

The Undercroft is at street level, reached by a door in the west passageway. An unusual piece of graffiti was found on a stone block forming part of the west wall. This is a carefully cut square-shaped indentation containing an upward-pointing arrow shape next to an initial I, with an additional diagonal line coming from the I (Photo 10).

Photo 10: Undercroft, west wall. Square indentation containing graffiti arrow shape and initial I

Acknowledgements

Our thanks go to John Stanning, church warden, who welcomed us to St Swithun’s and kindly provided us with access into the vestry and undercroft.

Survey Archive

110 photographs were taken during the survey. All images and record sheets are held by the Hampshire Field Club Medieval Graffiti Project archive and are available on request. A copy of this report has been lodged with the Winchester Historic Environment Record and with the church, and reports have been posted here on the HFC website.

Disclaimer

This document has been prepared for the titled project or named part hereof and should not be relied upon or used for any other project or assessment without the permission of the Hampshire Medieval Graffiti Project or the church.

The full report is available as a PDF download.

Surveyors: Mark Barden, Ron Braiding, Karen Parker, Aldous Rees, Noah Rees, Karen Wardley