St. Barnabas is located in the Gorse Hill area of Swindon, on the corner of Ferndale Road and Cricklade Road.  The church is Grade II listed - see listing details at the  Historic England  website.

The first time we visited was during a flower festival in September 2000 and we were warmly greeted by members of the congregation and enjoyed listening to the organ recital as we admired the flowers and took our photographs.

We had taken a photograph with us of Mandy's parents wedding, which took place at St. Barnabas in 1954, and showed it to some of the ladies in the church.  A few remembered the Lea family who lived in Bright Street just a few hundred metres away - Mandy's grandmother Queenie had eleven children.  One lady at the church actually attended the wedding and was able to recall the service; what luck we took the photograph with us.

There are some striking features inside the church, especially the large war memorial and the murals.  We do hope to return again, perhaps during one of their twice-weekly open house times, to take more photographs as we did not manage to photograph everything on our previous visits.

The hall next to the main church building is used as a centre by the wonderful Open Door charity which provides a specialist resource for adults with learning disabilities.  It runs a cafe each Friday which serves hot and cold drinks, light lunches, cakes and scones - all to raise funds for the charity.  See their website at:  www.theopendoorcentre.co.uk.