Swifts at St Hubert’s Church
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Also known as ‘the Little Church in the Field’ this Church has stood here for around a thousand years.
It is situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty, in the South Downs National Park at Idsworth, between Havant and Petersfield. Earl Godwin, head of one of the grandest and most powerful families of Anglo Saxon England, whose most famous son was King Harold, is believed to have had the chapel built sometime around 1030AD. He personally held the adjoining manor of Chalton.
When Hampshire Swifts first visited in 2016 there was thought to be four pairs of Swifts nesting here, three on the north side at higher level and one, remarkably, on the north side of the porch at a height of around 1.6m above ground level. This is the lowest Swift nest that we know about here in Hampshire. On 20 July 2016 there were 13 birds in a party screaming overhead.
In August 2025 Roger and I paid a brief visit to see the Church. This was the first time that I had been back since going to an event here in 2018. The Swift season had ended but I do hope that further repairs here have not disturbed the nest sites or blocked up the entrances. It is not known how long they have nested here, but possibly many hundreds of years. In my view this is as important a part of the Church’s history as the internal wall painting, which was painted in around 1330. We will visit again next summer to check.
Extensive and comparatively recent repairs to the south side of the Church, which takes the brunt of the weather, seem to have excluded the Swifts that most likely nested on this side of the Church in the past. But it was interesting to note that two pairs of House Martins had nested here this year. One pair was still busy feeding young whilst the other birds had already departed. I’m sure that these were not here in 2018. And I’m a bit surprised by the appearance of roots in the lower half of the nest. I’ll go back soon and get some better pictures as these were just taken on my phone. I wonder if it’s possible that the nest had been built originally by Swallows and later taken over by House Martins? No mud will have been available for the House Martins this year so the nests will have survived from at least last year, luckily there are no House Sparrows at this site to break the nests.
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