St Thomas's Church, Salisbury

St Thomas’s Church stands in central Salisbury, just west of the market place. The building began as a small wooden chapel in the early 13th century and was rebuilt in stone soon after. The present church was enlarged in the 15th century by prosperous merchants who paid for the new chancel and aisles. A tall tower with a pyramid roof was added on the south side, and its eight bells include one cast in 1716. The church is Grade I listed and occupies 1,147 square metres, making it one of the largest in Wiltshire. The church is worth the journey for its remarkable doom painting above the chancel arch. Painted in the late 15th or early 16th century, it shows Jesus with the twelve apostles flanked by scenes of heaven and hell. Hidden under whitewash during the Reformation, it was uncovered in 1881 and restored in 2019. The oak altar in the nave was installed in 2020, and the organ, originally bought in 1568, has been restored several times, most recently in 2020. Nikolaus Pevsner described the interior as sumptuous, and Julian Orbach praised the light nave and ornate 15th-century roofs. Visitors find a spacious nave with carved angel figures and a clerestory of clear glass. The chancel contains a high altar with an early Christian window renewed in 1856 and an alabaster reredos by G. E. Street. The tower holds a clock with quarter-jacks—wooden figures that strike the bells—and the churchyard lies close to the street that once linked the cathedral close to the market place. The Lady Chapel occupies the former chantry chapel funded by William Swayne, three times mayor of Salisbury.