Church Of St. John

SD 47 NE SILVERDALE EMESGATE LANE

1/181 Church of St. John 2. 5. 1968 II*

Church, 1885-6, by Ball and Elce. Squared limestone with sandstone dressings, sandstone interior and red tile roof. Comprises a west tower, nave with clearstorey, aisles, north porch, transepts and lower chancel. 3-stage tower has angle buttresses, a battlemented parapet with corner gargoyles and a deeply moulded west door. Above the door is a 3-light window with reticulated tracery. Each face has 2 2-light bell openings with traceried heads. The east window has reticulated tracery.

Interior - Nave has 4 bays with compound piers and arcades with pointed arches of 2 chamfered orders. Chancel arch and wide tower arch have. compound responds. The interior is unusual for the high quality of stone carving, including a statue of St. John in a niche in the tower wall, roof corbels carved as angels, and historiated capitals to the piers. These latter form a complete series of illustrations to the Book of Revelation, e.g. four angels holding the four winds of the earth; seven angels with seven trumpets; four and twenty elders with crowns of gold; the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The chancel has triple sedilia with cusped heads. The nave roof has arch-braced collars, with a barrel roof to the chancel. Late C19th glass in the clearstorey and east window. Font dated 1886, decorated with foliage, tracery and shafts.

Listing NGR: SD4632175401