Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist

A parish church built in 1856 by Frederick Preedy of Worcester, with the contractor George McCann of Malvern. The building is constructed of hammer-dressed sandstone laid in regular courses, with a Broseley-tile roof.

The church follows a simple Decorated style with a rectangular plan comprising a nave with a lower and narrower chancel to the west, a west tower and spire, and a south porch.

The buttressed three-bay nave features pairs of cusped-light windows with small blind crosses in the spandrels. The south door has a continuous chamfer and exuberant fake strap hinges. The porch contains an entrance arch with continuous chamfer and cusped side windows. The two-bay chancel has single cusped north and south windows, a three-light east window, and angle buttresses. A priest's door is positioned on the south side. The tower rises in two stages beneath a stone broach spire with lucarnes, standing 106 feet high. The lower stage has angle buttresses. The west window is tall and cusped, while the north side contains a door to the stair turret. The bell stage features paired bell openings flanked by single openings, all recessed in arched panels with louvres.

Inside, the double-chamfered tower arch dies into the imposts. The nave contains six arched-brace trusses, alternately set on corbelled brackets carved with foliage. The chancel arch has polygonal responds with chamfered arch. The chancel is more richly finished, with a three-bay arched-brace roof on corbelled posts with windbraces. The corbels are carved with foliage and heads. The south wall contains a cusped piscina with corbelled basin and window seats. The stone reredos, originally painted crimson, displays rich diaper work and three quatrefoils behind the altar filled with a figure of Christ and inscriptions of the Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed. The walls are plastered. Stone paving covers the floors, except for Minton decorative tiles around the font and in the chancel, and wood floors below the pews.

The font has a square bowl on four squat shafts with foliage capitals. Its elaborate cover is a tall broach spirelet with lucarnes, probably designed by Preedy. The stone pulpit was also probably Preedy's work, comprising a sculpted angel on a pedestal integrated with a dwarf wall spanning the chancel arch, which features central iron gates and low railings. Iron lamp holders stand on wall brackets beside the pulpit. The deal benches have moulded ends. Oak choir stalls feature scrollwork tops and open arcading to the fronts. The wooden communion rail is mounted on iron standards with scroll brackets. The east window, also by Preedy, depicts the crucifixion.