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St Thomas's is as old as the city of Salisbury, and God is still worshipped here after eight hundred years.
We are still privileged to serve the city in all its diversity, though the church building has been through many changes down the years. It was initially a wooden structure, believed to have been built for those working on the new Cathedral. Most of it dates to the fifteenth century, while the internal ordering of the Church is largely Victorian, now with 21st century bench seating and a new 'Tiger' oak nave altar. St Thomas's has always been the church of the City, and the painted badges of the guilds are still visible in the medieval wall paintings of the Lady Chapel.
Visitors are drawn immediately to the 'Doom' painting above the chancel arch, perhaps St Thomas's most famous single feature. It is the largest and most complete one still surviving in the UK. Painted over in 1593, in the latter part of the Reformation, the painting was uncovered and restored in 1881. Since then the inevitable ravages of time created small cracks, some of the paint began to chip away and - most alarming of all - the painting began to separate from its wall base. So as a part of a major fund-raising project called Quest 2020, a sensitive and complete restoration in 2019 made it stable and fresh, now revealed in its full glory.
Maintaining and restoring this historic church is an ongoing process, and support is always welcome in any form. If you wish to be more involved, whether you live locally or at a distance, the Friends of St Thomas's exists to promote the interests of this beautiful building.
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