Church Of St John

SD 71 SE 326/5/10044

KIRKLEES STREET Tottington

Church of St John

II

Free Church of England church. 1853, alterations 1867; chancel added 1905. Graduated coursed gritstone, ashlar details; slate roof. A plain 6-bay church with coped gables; bellcote and possibly south window added 1867; north chancel of 1 bay with attached boiler house/ vestry, c1907. South front: 3 steps up to a pedimented porch supported by 4 moulded columns; paired entrances with flat lintels, the right entrance blocked. A large window of 3 stepped round-arched lights above; a small blocked vent and datestone (1867) at the apex of the gable which is surmounted by a round-arched bellcot with moulded coping and scrolled brackets. Left and right returns: plain surrounds to tall side windows; decorated tracery to the 4-light north window. Interior: cast-iron bars and tension rods form 5 unusual roof trusses which imitate the form of hammer-beams set on corbels between the windows. At the south end 2 cast-iron columns support a panelled gallery with entrance screen below. Plain moulded bench-pews with doors. The windows have leaded glass in a honey-comb pattern within a round-arched surround; stained glass windows include fine north chancel window, 1921 by Gustave Hiller of Liverpool. Organ installed 1921. Historical information: in 1849 Samuel Perry was appointed vicar to the Anglican church in Tottington. Members of the congregation, including churchwarden and local employer William Bowers, objected to the influence of the Catholic Revival which resulted in the celebration of festivals and the wearing of a surplice by the vicar. Adverse reactions to the Oxford Movement had resulted in the foundation of the Free Church of England in 1844 when Bridgeton Chapel was built in Totnes. At Tottington the plain style of the church reflects non-conformist chapels and local industrial buildings of the mid C19.

Listing NGR: SD7759713118