Church Heritage Record 634437

3½-bay aisled nave (the half-aisle of the nave protruding at the west end), cross-gabled south aisle with porch in west bay, 2-bay chancel, vestry under north-east tower.

Nave 20m (66ft) long, chancel 10m long, 6m (19ft) wide.

There have been several important archaeological finds in the vicinity of the church including Palaeolithic tools and the “Salisbury Hoard”, a substantial collection of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age metalwork recovered illegally by metal-detectorists during the 1980s. The gravel flood-plains of the rivers in this area are in general of considerable archaeological potential and the churchyard is no exception, although no finds have yet been reported from within it.

Bymerton is mentioned in Domesday Book and was a small farming community until the 19th century, with a few scattered houses. The church of St Andrew was a Chapel of Ease from the 13th century to Fugglestone, a suburb of Wilton, the seat of Herbert’s kinfolk the Earls of Pembroke. The purchase of the Manor of Bemerton by the Pembroke estate in 1838 and the arrival of the railway at Fisherton (between Bemerton and Salisbury) in the 1850s led to the expansion of the village. 

The Earl of Pembroke acknowledged the needs of the growing community by building the village school and the new church of St John, built in 1859-61 and designed by T H Wyatt (who also designed new churches at nearby Wilton, Laverstock, and East Harnham) as a memorial to George Herbert. W Howitt did the stone carving.  The church was built with the help of donations from Herbert's admirers in America, and the British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who gave the lectern.  It was restored in 1896 by C Ponting, the diocesan architect. The village was absorbed into the expanding City of Salisbury in 1929, and is now the largest parish in Salisbury with a population of over 15,000. St Michael’s was built in 1957 in the north part of the parish.

This impressive church is designed in a mixture of the Early English and Decorated styles. It is one of Wyatt's best works. The unusually placed tower has a stair turret with spirelet at the south-west corner with vice, and a quatrefoil panelled parapet above paired 2-light bell openings above two widely spaced lancets. Stepped angle buttresses.

The nave is taller than the chancel and has a clearstorey, with alternately cusped Diocletian and trefoiled single light windows to each bay. The west gable has a plate tracery window with two pointed 2-light windows and a quatrefoil in the head, widely spaced. The end windows of the aisles have 3-light lancet windows stepped up to the nave.

The south show side has cross-gables to each bay, the western of which contains the porch, with a fine scrolled wrought iron screen. The middle bay has a 2-light plate tracery window, the eastern a lancet.  The north aisle has pairs of pointed cusped lancets to each bay linked by continuous hoodmoulds.  Buttresses of two weatherings to each odd bay.  

Slightly lower chancel. Under the east window, a stepped 5-light lancet with cusping and shafts, is a recessed stone foundation panel recording the laying of the foundation stone in 1859 by Elizabeth wife of Sidney Lord Herbert. The south wall has two cusped lancets flanking a cusped pointed priest’s doorway.

Moving inside, one finds a very impressive example of a High Victorian interior, with many details of quality. Bare ashlar stone walls, much high quality stained glass provides warmth and colour.  Looking west there is an inscription across the west wall and brass plaque remembering George Herbert.  Stone floor, every inch of the nave taken up by benches with plain ends, modern chairs in the aisles. 

The aisle arcades have columns with naturalistic carved foliage capitals (signed by William Howitt, 1866) carrying pointed moulded arches, and a similar high chancel arch with hoodmould. Good waggon roofs with scissor-braces near the apices and complex wooden vaulting to the cross-gabled south aisle. The fine organ case and pipes takes up the north side of the chancel. 

The east window has detached rere-shafts and a hoodmould, the middle lights are partly blocked by an ornate gilded reredos. Encaustic tiles to the chancel floor with central strip of red and gold carpet (see below), and good quality oak choirstalls with moulded ends. Fine corona lucis and chandeliers. All in all a dignified ensemble.