Church Of St John The Baptist

SE31SE ROYSTON CHURCH STREET (north side), Royston 2/79 Church of St. John the Baptist I

Church. Predominantly C15 in three building phases, but incorporating work of C14 which remains in the walling of the north nave and chancel aisles. Restored 1867-9 by Pearson. Very deeply-coursed ashlar. Stone slate roof. West tower, 4-bay nave, 3-bay chancel both with buttressed lean-to aisles, south porch. Perpendicular style. Square 4-stage tower with diagonal buttresses. Moulded west doorway with 3-light window above. The third stage has a 5-sided oriel window with cusped lights which have shields below, and a pyramidal roof. Louvred, transomed belfry openings. Gargoyles, crenellated parapet and crocketed pinnacles. Nave: clerestorey bays are divided by slender buttresses which are diagonally-set to bays 2 and 4, bay 1 being slightly later. 2-light cusped clerestorey windows with arched heads and hoodmoulds linked by a band. Gargoyles, crenellated parapet and crocketed pinnacles. 3-light south aisle windows with cusped lights and shallow-arched heads. 2-light north aisle windows with cusped Y-tracery. 3-light chancel aisle windows with Perpendicular tracery. 4-light east window with Decorated flamboyant tracery probably a C19 restoration.

Interior: 4-bay north and south arcade, bay 1 being cut out of solid wall, the rest on 8-sided lozenge-shaped piers and with cambered arches. 3-bay north chancel arcade, 2-bay south chancel arcade on octagonal piers with rosette decoration to the capitals. Spiral stair at west end of north aisle and to earlier west tower.

Excellent panelled roof to nave and aisles, with moulded beams and decorative bosses. Chancel roof panelled but plain with brattished wall plate. Chapel roofs panelled with bosses. Decorated, ogee-headed vestry door. Cusped, arched piscina. Low, brattished, panelled oak screen between chancel and south chapel. Similar screen to west of south chapel. Rood stair at east end of north aisle. Perpendicular octagonal font with traceried panelled sides. Excellent monument to Sandfoord (Sandford) Nevile 1672 of Chevet: a black marble slab on a stone base with iron railings, 4 white marble putti support a further black marble slab which bears the inscription. Near the south door is a Rococo wall memorial to Henry Broadhead, 1754 consisting of a black obelisk ground with a white marble putto on an inscribed cartouche with floral and foliage support; below are 3 cherubs heads with wings.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, 1967.

P. F. Ryder, Report for South Yorkshire Archaeology Service, January/February 1984.

Rev. J. G. H. Wilkinson, A Short Guide to the Parish Church of Royston, 1981.

B. Kemp, English Church Monuments, 1980.

Listing NGR: SE3642611242