Church Of St John Baptist

SJ 3892 WEST DERBY ROAD (south side) L13

21/1352 Church of 28.6.52 St. John Baptist

G.V. I

Church. 1868-70. G. F. Bodley. Cream stone with red stone dressings and random banding, tile roofs, with slate roofs to aisles. Nave with aisles under lean-to roofs, west tower, chancel and north chapel, south organ loft and vestry, short passage leading to deatched vestry. Tower has angle buttresses with gabled traceried panels. West entrance and 3-light window above with intersecting tracery. Top stage has 2-light louvred bell openings. Panelled parapet with pinnacles and spire on octagonal drum with 41 gabled 2-light openings. Lean-to stair turret to south-east angle. 5-bay nave has 2-light clerestory windows, and 3- light nave windows between buttresses. One segmental pointed window to north aisle and south gabled arch. Porch with flat roof and parapet, and statue in niche over entrance. North chapel has 2 paired 2-light windows with statue of St. Mark in niche; 3-light east window. Chancel has 5-light east window with intersecting tracery and 3-light south window. Vestry has unusual fluted gutter spout. Detached vestry has 2-light window to Green Lane and 2 square-headed 2-light windows flanking lateral stack to south; connecting passage has timber continuous traceried window of 6 lights, with entrance. Interior has arcades on octagonal piers. Walls are richly stencilled above sill level,roofs are also stencilled.Wall painted above chancel arch by Kempe (a rare example). Fittings are all richly painted. Nave has octagonal front or panelled base with marble shafts; pyramidal cover and lectern. Tower now has chapel of the Holy Rood; reredos, alter and credence table adapted from rood screen, 1890, by Bodley, taken from Dunstable Priory. Chancel screen has ribbed coving and loft parapet, chapels have similar screens, south chapel in end of aisle has screen behind reredos. Chancel has canopied stalls, parclose screen to north, organ to south. Rich reredos. Brass to Father Brockman, 1925. East and south windows by Morris and Co. Vestry has painted ceiling, passage has arch-braced cambered tie beams, detached vestry has cope- chests. A fine example of Bodley's early work with a remarkably complete interior, one of the finest examples of Victorian polychromy.

Listing NGR: SJ3829592405