Church Of St John The Evangelist

NZ 44 NW SEAHAM BLANDFORD PLACE (West side)

4/27 Church of St. John the Evangelist 21.6.50 (Formerly listed as II St. John's Church under Sophia Street)

Parish church. 1835-40 by Thomas Prosser, north aisle added 1860, choir and vicar's vestries added by R.J.Johnson in 1885-6. Dressed limestone with sandstone dressings and moderate-pitched graduated Welsh slate roofs. West tower, aisleless nave and chancel, north aisle, north choir and vicar's vestries. Perpendicular style. Windows have mainly rectilinear tracery with trefoil-headed lights, chamfered reveals, hoodmoulds and alternating jambs.

2-stage west tower has chamfered plinth and diagonal buttresses; doorway in south wall under 4-centred-arched head; 3-light ground-floor window in west wall; belfry stage above string course has four louvred openings of 2 lights with pointed heads partly hidden by clock faces; slightly projecting battlemented parapet with corner pinnacles. South wall of wide 3-bay nave has chamfered plinth and diagonally- buttressed corners with 2 stepped buttresses between bays; 2-light square-headed windows; low parapet with chamfered and roll-moulded coping. Canted porch in south wall at junction of nave and chancel has doorway with pointed-arched head and small lancet above. Lower and narrower 2-bay chancel with chamfered plinth and low parapet has two 2-light windows, set high in south wall, with square heads and a stepped buttress between; diagonally-buttressed east end has tall 3-light window with pointed head and string courses above and below. Single-storey, gabled vicar's vestry attached to north of chancel has low 4-light window with square head. 2-storey choir vestry has similar fenestration and door under pointed-arched head. Tall, 4-bay north aisle has double-chamfered plinth, chamfered sill band and four 2-light windows with square heads; gabled returns have chamfered coping and kneelers; steeply-pitched roof.

Interior: Nave has first floor gallery at west end and 3 ranks of C19 pews; panelled roof; north aisle arcade has 4 double-chamfered pointed arches on circular piers. Chancel: 2 steps up to 4-centred, hollow-chamfered chancel arch; roof has 4 hammerbeam trusses with cambered collars. Elaborate stucco and marble monument to 3rd. Marquess of Londonderry, died 1854, has Gothick details and stands against south wall of chancel.

Late C20 addition to north of tower not of special interest.

Listing NGR: NZ4270049334