Your Heritage
St Swithun’s Church heritage and community room is a focal point for village activities – it's used by all members of the local community and visitors from further afield.
The Sandford Heritage Group worked with the PCC to develop the facility, and the room is used for recording and researching a primarily digital archive of the area.
The archive continues to grow, and includes film records of recent local events and village school projects. The church welcomes groups for events including heritage talks as well as visiting groups of children, tourists and bell ringers. The Heritage Group is planning regular weekend tours of the village, which will all end at the church for an illustrated talk and refreshments.
The church is now regularly used by the local school as an inspirational resource. A project based on a 16th-century carved bench involved children learning about traditional wood carving, and then designing their own bench ends. Another project involved children exploring the family histories of those who died during the First World War, using the village war memorial as a starting point.