St Swithun's Lychgate

Traditionally, a funeral service did not take place in a church unless an internment (such as in a vault) but alongside the grave. The clergy met the corpse at the Lychgate and the bier rested, while part of the service was read before burial. The most common form of lychgate is a simple shed composed of a roof with two gabled ends.

St Swithun's has, as might be expected of a large Parish Church, a large Lychgate. In the late 1960s it was renovated to include a dedication for those killed during the 1939-1945 (second) World War.