I considered these unfortunate and shameful things as I went on along
this British, Roman, Saxon and English way, the way of armies and of
pilgrims into Headbourne Worthy, whose church stands by the roadside on
the north.
This little church dedicated in honour of St Swithin is all of a piece
with the road, and illustrates it very well. Its beauty alone would
recommend it to the wayfarer, but it also possesses an antiquity so
great that nothing left to us in Winchester itself can match it. For in
plan, and largely in masonry too, it is a Saxon sanctuary, though a
late one, dating as it would seem from the early part of the eleventh
century. What we see is a beautiful little building consisting of nave
with curious western chamber, chancel, south-western tower and modern
south porch. The original church probably did not differ very much in
plan from that we have, but only the north and west walls of the nave
of the original building remain to us; the latter having the original
doorway of Binstead stone. The south wall of the nave and the tower
were rebuilt in the thirteenth century, as was the chancel, which is
now a modern building so far as its north and eastern walls are
concerned.
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