Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is an outstanding Grade I listed church in Stamford. It originated in the 12th century, but the vast majority of the present building dates from the 15th century and appears to have been completed in a single building campaign finished in 1451. The tower predates this main phase, though its exact date is uncertain and it is earlier than the 15th century. The bellframe was rebuilt between approximately 1680 and 1710. Internal refitting occurred in the 18th century. The church underwent restoration in 1856 by architect Edward Browning, with further restorations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Major work was carried out on the nave arcades in 1950 to 1953. The church became redundant in 2003 and was subsequently repaired.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with lead roofs.

The plan comprises a chancel with north and south chapels and a south vestry, a nave with north and south aisles, a tower positioned over the west bay of the north aisle, and a small south porch.

Exterior

The exterior is entirely Perpendicular in appearance. The chancel and clerestoried nave and aisles are embattled and feature 15th-century windows, mostly with cusped lights and vertical tracery. A polygonal rood stair turret at the junction between the south aisle and south chapel projects above the roof line and is topped with a small stone spire.

The five-stage tower stands over the west bay of the north aisle and predates the rest of the present church, though there is evidence it was altered to match the mid-15th-century work. It has clasping buttresses and a rich embattled parapet with tall pinnacles. The tall bell openings are of two subdivided lights with a central supermullion, a Stamford characteristic subsequently used elsewhere in Lincolnshire. The very shallow south porch is richly decorated with a two-centred arch displaying many tiny orders beneath a crocketted ogee label and a small embattled parapet with pinnacles and side gargoyles. Brick channelling was added around the whole church in 1897 to 1899, and the southeast vestry was built in 1906.

Interior

The spacious interior is almost wholly of the 15th century. Only a small area of 12th-century stonework north of the chancel arch and weather courses for former nave and aisle roofs on the internal east and south faces of the tower remain from earlier churches. The north and south chapels open from the chancel through 15th-century single arches with two wave-moulded orders, and the chancel arch is similar. The arches from the chapels to the aisles die into the walls.

The north and south nave arcades are of the same design, with two orders, the inner on polygonal attached shafts and the outer continuous. The south arcade has four bays, and the north arcade has three bays, with the fourth bay forming the south tower arch. Both the south tower arch and the east tower arch to the north aisle are similar in design to the nave arcades but are taller, narrower and heavier. The easternmost pier of the north arcade was entirely rebuilt in 1950 to 1953 following subsidence caused by burial vaults below it.

Fittings and Fixtures

The church contains excellent 15th and 19th-century fittings. A very fine 15th-century octagonal font features quatrefoil panelling and a waisted stem, with an octagonal 17th-century font cover having panelled sides and a conical spire with crockets. A 15th-century chancel piscina has miniature vaulting inside the recess, and another 15th-century piscina is located in the south aisle. A delicate timber wineglass pulpit dates to 1953 and was donated by E Bowman and Sons, who carried out the restoration work. Excellent nave benches of 1856 by Edward Browning feature openwork backs, poppyheads and carved ends. The choir stalls are also by Browning. Two early 18th-century altar frontals are framed and hang in the south aisle.

Fifteenth-century screens are positioned at the east ends of the north and south aisles, closing off the chapels. Both have cusped arcading on the dado beneath openings with elaborate dropped tracery and double doors with similar tracery, with traces of a former coved cornice visible. A similar screen on the south side of the chancel was formerly the chancel screen. All screens were re-set in their present positions during the 1856 restoration.

Excellent 15th-century glass, all dating to 1451, was cleaned and partly re-set in 1974, including the chancel north window and windows in both the north and south aisles. Other glass is of the 19th and 20th centuries, including the east and west windows of 1856 by Francis Wilson Oliphant, and windows by Heaton, Butler and Baynes, and Clayton and Bell.

The roofs are all mid-15th century and were re-coloured in 1856. The chancel roof has cambered tie beams with short king posts, tracery infill above the beams and carved bosses. The curved braces have crude angel figures that may be an addition of 1623. The nave roof also has cambered tie beams with foliate bosses, with angels on the intermediate principals. The wall posts stand on figural corbels. The south aisle and south chapel roofs are lean-to and also have angels on the wall posts, while the north aisle and north chapel roofs are simpler.

Monuments and Memorials

Brasses include Nicholas Byldyson and Kateryn, his wife, died 1489; William Gregory and Agnes, his wife, undated 15th century; and Henry Sargeaunt, rector, died 1497. The slab for the latter was reused for Thomas Bright, died 1774. There are many good 18th and early 19th-century wall tablets, notably John Booth, died 1799, represented by a Coade stone relief of a female figure leaning on an urn, signed Coade, London, 1800.

Churchyard and Subsidiary Features

The small churchyard contains a number of good 18th and 19th-century headstones, and several monuments are attached to the outside of the church.

Historical Context

St John the Baptist is not among the churches known to have existed in Stamford in the Anglo-Saxon period and may be 12th century in origin, dating to the earliest surviving fabric. Stamford was sacked and burned by Lancastrian forces in 1461, but the newly rebuilt church apparently survived the destruction intact. Its wholesale rebuilding around 1450 reflected the prosperity of the town during this period, when it was made wealthy by the wool and cloth trade. It was the first of Stamford's churches to be influenced by the Tractarian movement and was refitted in High Church style in 1856 by local architect Edward Browning, who also worked on Stamford's other medieval churches. The work included restoration and re-seating, along with extensive painted decoration in the chancel, but this was removed in 1878 when new furnishings including a Caen stone reredos and pulpit, both later removed, were installed. Additional restorations took place in 1867, 1897 to 1899 and 1906, when the vestry was added. The north arcade was partially rebuilt and the tower parapet renewed in 1950 to 1953. Proposals in the mid-1990s to remove many of the furnishings were rejected. The church became redundant in 2003 and came into the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, which carried out repairs to the roofs and other works.