Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist

A parish church built in 1855–56 to designs by H I Stevens, with a north porch added in 1906. The building was constructed by Charles Lindley of Mansfield and paid for mainly by Henry Gally Knight, author of Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy. It is built in Gothic Revival style using Mansfield and Ancaster stone ashlar with ashlar dressings, steep pitched slate roofs with coped gables, a plinth, sill band, string course, and buttresses throughout.

The plan comprises a chancel, nave with clerestory and aisles, porches, vestry, and a west tower with spire.

The chancel extends three bays with a coped gable topped by a cross and wavy pierced balustrades, and has gabled buttresses to the east end and south side. The east end contains a traceried five-light pointed-arch window. The south side has three traceried two-light pointed-arch windows, each with a hoodmould and stops, with a segment-arched door beneath the central window. The blank north side features a lean-to vestry with coped gables, a flat-headed two-light window, and a moulded double doorway with shafts and hoodmould.

The nave has pilaster buttresses to the clerestory, chamfered eaves with fleurons, and on each side five pairs of two-light pointed-arch windows with hoodmoulds and stops. The south aisle comprises five bays with an off-centre gabled porch flanked to the west by a two-light pointed-arch window and to the east by two three-light windows followed by a two-light pointed-arch window. The east and west ends have single four-light pointed-arch windows with Geometrical tracery to the east and flowing tracery to the west, all with hoodmoulds and stops. Gabled angle buttresses stand at each end. The north aisle is similarly designed with its porch in the same position and a three-light pointed-arch window with flowing tracery at the west end; its east end is blank.

The gabled south porch has flanking buttresses, a plain parapet and frieze with fleurons, and a moulded doorway with double shafts and hoodmould featuring ballflowers. A flat-headed two-light window flanks the door on either side. The smaller hipped north porch has a plain square-headed doorway to the west.

The central west tower rises in three stages with stepped buttresses, string courses, gargoyles, and a pierced balustrade. A buttressed octagonal stair turret to the south-west has a trefoil frieze and spire with ball finial. The ground stage features a moulded doorway with shafts and hoodmould to the west, above which is a traceried four-light pointed-arch window. Single lancets with hoodmoulds appear on the north and south sides. The middle stage has a single lancet on three sides. The bell stage contains two louvred two-light bell openings on each side with linked hoodmoulds. A set-back octagonal broach spire rises above, with patterned string courses, ball finial and weathercock, and three tiers of gabled lucarnes on alternate faces.

The interior chancel features a triple moulded arch with hoodmould, painted text, and filleted shafts with foliage capitals. A sill band and scissor-braced roof run throughout. The east end contains an elaborate full-width stone reredos with depressed ogee arches flanked by single larger gabled niches. A stained-glass window dates to 1870. The south side has a central door and three stained-glass windows of 1869, 1875, and 1880. The north side features a pointed-arched central doorway flanked to the left by a pointed-arched organ opening with tracery and central shaft, and to the right by a pointed-arched canopied niche with shafts containing a panel inscribed with the Beatitudes.

The nave has an arch-braced roof with wooden shafts on foliage corbels. An enriched clerestory sill band runs throughout. Five-bay arcades feature octagonal piers with moulded capitals and double moulded arches bearing hoodmoulds, stops, and painted texts. The west end has a tall segmental pointed tower arch dying into responds. A good-quality stained-glass west window dates to 1905.

The south aisle has an arch-braced lean-to roof with wall shafts. The eastern end contains the Lilley Memorial Chapel of 1926 with a stained-glass east window of 1853. Eastern windows contain stained glass of 1855 and 1870. To the west, a pointed-arched doorway is flanked by stained-glass windows of 1960 and 1955. The north aisle has a similar roof, a pointed-arched north door, and an opening at the east end containing organ pipes.

The south porch has a moulded inner doorway with shafts, hoodmould and stops.

Fittings include a traceried panelled square font with corner shafts and similar shafts to the stem, and a traceried octagonal wooden pulpit dated 1886. A wooden eagle lectern, stalls, desks and benches with ogee tracery and panelled fronts, all of the nineteenth century, are present.

A wooden war memorial plaque with bronze tablet, dating to around 1918, is also recorded.