Church of St John with street railings, gates, piers and front steps

Church of St John with street railings, gates, piers and front steps

Built in 1871 by Mr Bradford as a Free Church at the expense of Francis Wright of Osmaston, the Church of St John is constructed in rock-faced gritstone with freestone dressings and slate roofs. The building is planned with a nave, a lower apsidal chancel, a west tower, and a north-east vestry.

The exterior is executed throughout in a consistent Rundbogenstil, or neo-Norman, style. The church has a battered plinth. Windows are uniform in having recessed roll-moulded surrounds and, in the nave and chancel, iron-frame two-light Italianate glazing. The unbuttressed three-stage tower contains the porch at its lower stage, which features a round-headed doorway with two orders of nook shafts bearing leaf capitals, a roll-moulded arch, and a tympanum inscribed with text from Matthew's Gospel. The second stage has a two-light round-headed west window with plate tracery, and clock faces set in circular frames appear in the west, north and south walls. Triple round-headed belfry windows are recessed beneath a corbel table and incorporate shafts with cushion capitals. The parapet, still rock-faced, includes arcading with alternate blind and pierced arches. The six-bay nave has angle buttresses in the south and north walls, the latter also incorporating a vestry stack. The nave is lit by single-light windows and is trimmed with a corbel table, while its roof features two gabled ventilators. The chancel displays a richer Lombard frieze below the eaves and smaller round-headed windows. The vestry, under a separate gabled roof, has a shoulder-headed doorway and round-headed windows similar to those elsewhere but with margin-lit sashes.

The interior walls are plastered and painted panels set below painted plaster vaults. A basilican plan is created by arcades of cast-iron columns manufactured by Andrew Handyside of Derby, featuring shaft rings and moulded capitals. These columns support a nave tunnel vault with iron ribs and ceiling roses, as well as vaulted aisle bays. The apse is plaster-vaulted with cast-iron ribs on iron wall shafts. The chancel arch is plain. The west wall contains a blind round-headed recess.

The neo-Norman theme extends to the interior fittings. A west gallery has a blind arcaded front. The round font features cable moulding around the top of a short round stem. The nave benches have square-headed ends with shouldered round-headed panels and incorporate hat and glove hooks (though some benches have been removed from the east end). The communion rail has a semi-circular central projection and turned balusters. The polygonal pulpit is of late 20th-century date in a late-medieval style. Two wall tablets with Gothic crocketed gables commemorate Francis Wright (died 1873) and his brother.

The entrance to the churchyard from Buxton Road comprises iron railings with fleur-de-lis finials mounted on a dwarf retaining wall. Between square-section gate piers with four-way gables stand iron gates featuring similar detailing to the railings. (A section of railings and retaining wall on the north side of the gate piers has been removed.) Inside the gates, diamond-pattern stone paving leads to stone steps and piers matching the gate piers, on which cast-iron lamp posts with replaced lights are mounted.

The church was built by Handysides, ironmasters whose Derby-based foundry was a leading manufacturer whose works can be found in India, Mexico, London's Olympia and the Albert Bridge. The building's design reflects echoes of mid-19th-century cast-iron construction found in French architecture, reflecting the unusual character of the church as an independent free church foundation.