Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist was newly constructed in 1842-43 to designs by George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt. The building represents an early example of the 'archaeological' approach to church design that came to dominate Victorian architecture, described by Pevsner as 'one of the first archaeologically conscientious churches in England'.

Materials and Construction

The church is built in freestone provided by Lord Leigh, the patron, from his quarry a couple of miles away near Gibbet Hill. The nave and chancel roofs are tiled in a pattern. The bell turret, which was rebuilt, is constructed of brick. The church hall complex is constructed of ashlared blocks of sandstone with fine mortar joints. The building was constructed by Messrs Bradshaw and Platt at a cost of £1,580.

Plan and External Appearance

The church has a nave and chancel with no aisles, a north-west porch and south-east vestry. A large but low-lying two-phase church hall complex abuts the west end of the church, now provides the main access into the church, and partly wraps around the north-west corner.

The church is constructed in ashlar masonry, the 1842-44 phase of a reddish colour. The vestry is plastered externally. The building is designed in a simple 'Decorated' style. The chancel, with diagonal buttresses, has elegant, steeply pointed lancets with cusped and foliate tracery heads and hoodmoulds. The east window, of three lights, contains intersecting Decorated style tracery and a hoodmould terminating in carved heads. The nave, wider than the chancel, has diagonal buttresses at the east end and two-light Decorated style traceried windows. These include ogee reticulated and the so-called 'Kentish' quatrefoil designs. Each one is differently designed to create a variety and inventiveness that was the hallmark of the Decorated style. The west window of four lights has tiers of reticulated tracery. The church has a large north-west porch with short diagonal buttresses and a moulded doorway on shafts. The 1876 vestry was built in a sympathetic style. The west end bell turret was rebuilt in brick in 1970.

The western rooms are not of special interest. They are quite extensive and all are of a single storey with flat roof and square-headed windows. The church is commonly approached via these rooms. Whilst carefully carried out and providing much-needed extensions to this small building, this annexe does nevertheless impact on the character of the rural 19th century church.

Interior

The church, although small, feels spacious and lofty. The walls are plastered, blocked out and painted as redecorated in about 1980. The chancel is covered with a canted wagon roof and separated from the nave by a double-chamfered chancel arch on octagonal responds with moulded capitals and hoodmoulds with carved terminals. The nave has an arch-braced roof with three tiers of purlins and four tiers of slender windbraces. Underneath the west window has been inserted a square-headed doorway providing access to the added west end rooms.

As originally constructed the church was designed to fit 300 people, with two-thirds of the sittings being free. The church was re-ordered in the 1980s, at which time the benches were made moveable, and the east end fittings are 20th century. It was further re-ordered in the 1990s when the remaining 19th century seating and choir stalls were removed from the chancel and an apron floor was inserted to house a nave altar. The interior is now carpeted and there is presumably a Victorian tiled floor underneath the carpet. The interior is now considerably altered.

Principal Fixtures

There is an elegant and simple pedimented First World War memorial on the north nave wall, dated 1919 and recording the names of those lost to the parish.

The earliest surviving stained glass appears to be the northernmost window on the nave south wall, dated to 1885 and in memory of Gertrude Charlotte, wife of Reverend George F Hough, vicar. Some respectable survivals of early 20th century glass include the east window of 1916, in memory of Olive Mary Tuke, wife of Ben B Tuke, depicting a crucifixion scene flanked by Mary and the church's patron saint St John the Baptist. The west window was glazed in memory of Nellie Elizabeth, wife of WE Bullock, who died in 1934. It shows Christ and saints receiving children with angels above and an inscription 'suffer little children to come unto me'. Wooden cupboards at the west end of the nave are constructed from oak panels removed from the 1923 vestry when it was demolished.

A 2002 report recorded the presence of some bench ends with poppyhead ends. These have since been removed and no historic seating survives. The 19th century east end fittings have also been removed. The font is the only survival from this period, about the 1840s. It is an octagonal stone bowl on an octagonal stem. The bowl is carved with motifs including the IHS and includes the arms of Vaughan Thomas, who presented it. The stem has a cornice with waterleaf carving. Commandment boards hang either side of the west window. An organ was installed in 1911 but has since been removed.

Historical Background

Westwood Heath was originally a hamlet in the parish of Stoneleigh outside Coventry and is now close to the University of Warwick. A local patron, Lord Leigh, had converted a cottage into a school which became used as a chapel for the local dispersed community. This was not large enough for the congregation and the residents wanted a church. Some money was raised by subscription and eventually Lord Leigh provided an endowment of £1,000, an additional stipend of £300 and a house in order to get the church started in 1841. It was originally constituted as a chapel of Stoneleigh, then constituted a parish in 1846, and the living was declared a vicarage in 1866.

Whilst an early church in Scott's career, the design is indicative of the 'archaeological' approach pioneered in the first years of the 1840s, although it is not the first of its kind. Scott's partnership with William Bonython Moffatt (1812-87) had begun in 1835. Moffatt was a pupil of the London architect James Edmeston, under whom Scott also trained. Moffatt did design buildings on his own account but generally did not bring much to the partnership. The partnership was dissolved in 1844. Scott went on to become one of the most important and prolific church architects of the 19th century, best known for St Pancras Hotel, the Foreign Office, the Albert Memorial and legion churches and restorations. The church represents an interesting attempt to create a small rural church in a later medieval style. Its Decorated form represents a general trend that favoured the 'middle pointed' style at this date.

The church served a series of dispersed small settlements comprising the hamlets of Kirby Corner, Banner Lane, Broad Lane, Tile Hill, Whoberley, Fletchampstead, Canley, Burton Post, Crackley, Hurst, The Pools and Bockended. The churchyard was extended in the early 20th century, consecrated in 1922, in order to provide for the expanding population in nearby hamlets that were fast developing as part of a more industrialised Coventry. In 1928 the city boundary incorporated half of the parish, including the church and the mission room which had been planted in Tile Hill in 1923. A daughter church was planted in Fletchampstead in 1937 and in Canley in 1954. The parish was eventually split in 1964 with St Mary's and St James'. The western annexe was constructed in 1966 to provide kitchen and toilet facilities. Further work in the 1970s to the west end followed a consistory court hearing with regard to the removal of graves. The extension, which provided meeting rooms and a new porch, was dedicated in 1982. The church was re-ordered in the 1980s and 1990s at which times the 19th century fittings and furnishings were removed.