St Augustine, Swindon

The Parish Church of St. Augustine of Canterbury is an Anglican church in Even Swindon (also known locally as Rodbourne), an area of the town of Swindon, Wiltshire. The church was built to serve the spiritual needs of people moving to Swindon because of the Great Western Railway Works.

The church was designed by W A H Masters who also designed St Luke's Church, Broad Street, Swindon.

The Beginning

In what is thought to be a former church schoolroom built around 1873, the Rodbourne Cheney District Room became a mission chapel in the early 1880's within the parish of St Mary Rodbourne Cheney. The inventory records that the licence holding Divine Services was acquired on 2nd April, 1881. The earliest known record of a baptism dates from 1885.

The Rev W Mould, vicar of St Mary's and also chaplain to Queen Victoria, found difficulty in covering services at the chapel and made arrangements St Mark's Church (another 'railway' church) to cover services and pastoral work.

On 26th October 1904, Rev Henry Harvey was licenced as missionary curate in St Augustine's district. He went on to serve the church in Rodbourne for a total of 29 years, and was made Honorary Chaplain to the Bishop and on completion of 25 years' service, was made an Honorary Canon of Bristol Cathedral.

The current priest in charge is Revd Canon Alastair Stevenson

Building and Consecration

The foundation stone of St Augustine's was laid on 13th April 1907 amid much ceremony, and was the first time that the Freemasons in Wiltshire were involved in a church service. Building commenced at the East End and the church in its current state was consecrated on 25th January 1908.

The bricks were paid for by the parishoners and cost one old penny each. Sadly, money ran out and the side aisles, porches, bell tower and further chapels were never completed.

It is one of the few churches in the South of England, and the only church in Swindon built in the Basilica style and consists of a long Nave of 6 wide bays and Apse with a walled Choir surrounded by aisles. There is no physical division between Nave and Choir in the main building so is effectively a large hall. The Vestry and Lady Chapel are at the North East corner of the church.

The church is approximately 120 ft long, 40 ft wide and the nave roof reaches about 50ft. The Apse arch is about 30 feet high.

The single bell weighs four and a half hundredweight.

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Music

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The church has a strong musical tradition, the choir of the early days consisted of a choir of men and boys numbering nearly 50. Women were allowed into the choir for the first time in the mid 1970's. The choir presented the nameplate of the steam engine "Westminster Abbey" to the cohirboys there, and it can still be seen in the choir school to this day.

There are two organs, a pipe organ of two manuals and 12 stops (896 pipes) which is no longer used, and a two manual digital organ of 33 speaking stops. This organ was donated to the church in 2003 and the church has had two recitals by Professor Ian Tracey, Organist Titulaire of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

The speakers of the digital organ are positioned high up in the organ loft, about 30 feet above the North stalls of the choir.

Church Website

[http://www.staugustines-swindon.co.uk]