Church Of St John Newland

Church of St John, Newland

This parish church was built in 1833 to designs by William Hutchinson of Hull. It underwent substantial later additions and extensions by the architectural firms Smith & Brodrick and Brodrick, Lowther & Walker.

The building is constructed in yellow brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs, designed in the Perpendicular style with pointed-arched windows. It features a plinth, sill and eaves bands, coped parapets and gables throughout.

The plan comprises a chancel, nave, west porch, baptistry, north aisle, lady chapel and vestries.

The buttressed chancel has diagonal buttresses to its east end and a five-light window with panel tracery and hoodmould. The south side displays two two-light windows with panel tracery, hoodmoulds and an impost band. On the north side is a lean-to vestry with buttresses; to its east a traceried flat-headed window, and to the north two similar lancets flanking a moulded four-centred arched doorway with flat head.

The buttressed nave has six traceried three-light windows on the south side. At the south-east corner stands an octagonal turret topped with a buttressed bell stage having a slit on each side under an ogee dome. The west end displays a gable cross flanked by thin pinnacles, with a central five-light traceried window with hoodmould and a single lancet above. Below is a single-storey porch with coped parapet and diagonal buttress. To the right is a Perpendicular double door with hoodmould, and to the left a canted projection with three flat-headed windows; the right return has a similar window. The buttressed north aisle contains six three-light windows and to the west a four-light one. A parapeted single-storey vestry at the west end has on the south side a two-light mullioned window flanked by single smaller windows with flat heads, and on the north side four two-light metal casements.

The chancel interior has a moulded four-centred arch with gabled hoodmould and traceried spandrels. Above is a painted low-pitched arch-braced roof on corbels with traceried spandrels. The north side features a chamfered arched opening to the organ chamber and a segment-headed moulded doorway with hoodmould. The east end has traceried panelled dado and a Decorated style wooden reredos by Charles Beyaert of Bruges, with an east late-19th-century stained-glass window. The south side contains two windows.

The nave has a low-pitched roof with moulded beams and billeted wall plate with fleurons. The west end has a double-chamfered four-centred arched doorway with a pair of doors and a window above. The south side displays three stained-glass windows dated 1921 and 1926. A six-bay north arcade has cruciform piers and arches with continuous double chamfers. The north aisle has a low-pitched roof on corbels. At the west end is a double-chamfered four-centred arched door with traceried half-glazed doors and a window above; to the east, a double-chamfered arch and traceried wooden screen lead to the Lady Chapel. North-east windows contain stained glass from the early and mid-20th century. A canted baptistry has a 19th-century stained-glass window and on each side traceried half-glazed doors with depressed segmental heads.

Fittings include a wrought-iron altar rail, brass lectern of 1892, traceried square oak pulpit of 1946, and traceried stalls and desks from the late 19th century. Panelled benches with shaped ends date from the 19th century. Memorials comprise five 19th-century Classical marble tablets (one with a crest) and various 19th and 20th-century tablets and brasses. A wooden war memorial panel with sculpture and crucifix dates to around 1920.

The stained glass includes an east window by Burlison & Grylls of 1901, windows on the south side of the nave by William Aikman from the 1920s, and in the north aisle by Powell & Sons, Whitefriars (1928), Harry Stammers (1946) and Anne Rutherford (1993).

Originally a simple rectangular building, the chancel and north vestry were added in 1893 by Smith & Brodrick. The nave was extended one bay west in 1902, and the baptistry, porches and six-bay north aisle were added by Brodrick, Lowther & Walker. The octagonal font dates from 1717 and was originally in St Mary, Lowgate, Hull. It was recut in 1865 when ogee details were removed.