Roman Catholic Church Of St Mary And St John The Baptist

SD 62 NW PLEASINGTON PLEASINGTON ROAD

SD 643 266

1/51 Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary and St. John the Baptist 24-11-1966 - I

Church, 1816-19, by John Palmer, with carving and sculpture by Thomas Owen. Ashlar, with low-pitched slate roof. Tall and prominent building in mixed Gothic style. Nave with aisles, polygonal apse. West front has C12-style portal of 3 orders with tablet flower and crocketed hoodmould, above which are 3 statues on corbels (the under side of the middle corbel is a bust of George, Prince Regent, lettered on each side "G" "R" and dated in the corner "MDCCCXIIII"), all these within a giant arch with dogtooth and small carved figures. Above this arch a small parapet pierced with quatrefoils separates it from the wall above, which is set back slightly, contains an elaborate wheel window, and is flanked by octagonal turrets terminating in 3-stage pinnacles linked by a parapet of zig-zag openwork meeting a crocketed cross on the apex. Left and right of the front are side-offices (containing staircase and vestry) which have elaborately carved niches lettered respectively THOMAS OWEN SCULPTOR and JOHANNES PALMER ARCHITECTUS, the latter having a hoodmould with figured stops portraying the architect's wife and his son. The gable above the wheel window has 3 lines of incised uncial lettering. Five-bay nave and aisles: nave has small buttresses, stepped triple lancet clerestory windows, and openwork lattice parapet; aisles have gableted buttresses and embattled parapets, 5-light windows with alternating Geometrical and Perpendicular tracery in shafted and deeply-moulded arches, hoodmoulds with figured stops; 4th bay on south side has simple priest door below ½-depth window. Short polygonal apse has buttresses at the angles, tall 5-light Perpendicular windows with transoms. Interior: high and luminous, with rib-vaulted roofs to nave and aisles (carved bosses in the centre), 4-bay arcade of shafted piers and moulded arches with dogtooth ornament; west end is occupied by a generous internal narthex presenting a 2-bay arcade to the nave (the supporting column rising from the centre of a pedestalled stoup) and carrying a raked choir gallery with an organ at the top; east end has traceried wooden communion rail on segmental steps to sanctuary, which is framed by a very high arch, and has on each side of the altar a large carved relief, depicting the Beheading of St. John, and the Magdalen; at south side priest's door is set in centre of elaborate carved stone screen. History: built as thank offering by John Francis Butler, then owner of Pleasington township, said to have cost £23,000. Exceptional form of Catholic chapel for the period before Emancipation; and very elaborate use of Gothic with sculpture of great originality. (References: Pevsner; Whitaker Whalley vol. II pp. 352-7).

Listing NGR: SD6428426650