Church Of St John The Baptist

SO 59 NW; 7/24

CHURCH PREEN C.P., CHURCH PREEN

Church of St John the Baptist

13.6.58

GV

II*

Parish church, formerly part monastic. Circa 1220-50, restored 1866 with south chapel of c.1920-25. Uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, machine tile roof. Nave and chancel in one with west bellcote; north porch and vestry, south chancel chapel.

Nave: north wall has two lancets, one of 1866 to west and an original lancet with transom and low-side window below to east; gabled stone porch to west probably C17 but restored when adjoining vestry was added to west in 1866; south wall has two lancets and a pointed doorway to east, all of 1866; west wall also largely re-built at this date, external gabled bellcote with buttresses beneath,forming narrow pointed arch to ground, frames window of two paired lancets. Chancel: in two bays, original lancets to north and one on south which also has embattled south chapel (now partly roofless) concealing blocked C13 doorway; original east window of three lancets, unusually all of same height, and internally under a segmental scoinson arch.

INTERIOR: retains original long narrow plan but considerably restored 1866, especially at west end; pointed north door- way renewed at this time and most of the fittings and furnishings are contemporary including continuous trussed rafter roof to nave and chancel; latter has C13 trefoil-headed piscina in south wall and recessed sedile below lancet immediately to west, 2 corbels for statues flank east window, blocked doorway with shouldered arch was presumably the monks' entrance to the church; reading desk dated 1646 has initials "ID" and the letter "S" backwards, pulpit probably a little later, contemporary re-used panelling fixed to walls; Romanesque-style font on clustered shaft mid-C19 but square-shaped basin in north porch may be C13; another font (now in south chapel) is probably late C13/early C14 - octagonal, the diagonal sides being shorter and ending in small broaches; stained glass in east and west windows c.1870 and c.1900 respectively with pre-Raphaelite style glass to north-east and north- west windows of chancel. The yew tree in the churchyard is said to be one of the oldest in England. Founded as a cell of the Cluniac Abbey at Much Wenlock c.1150, the eastern part of the church was monastic and the western part parochial; the house was dissolved in 1534.

B.o.E., Pp.99-100; V.C.H.VIII (1968), p.128; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 6 (1903), Pp.470-3.

Listing NGR: SO5432798145