Church Of St John

Church of St John, Worcester

This is a church of primarily late 12th-century origin with significant additions and alterations spanning the medieval period through the 19th century. The building is constructed in red sandstone with plain tile roofs.

The plan comprises a three-bay nave with north and south aisles, the south aisle being extended by a chapel attached to the chancel. The church is furnished throughout with offset buttresses.

The exterior displays a mixture of architectural styles reflecting its long development. The east gable contains a five-light Perpendicular-style window. The south chancel wall features similar two-light windows flanking a pointed arched doorway, with a comparable window to the north. The north chapel's east wall displays a rose window positioned above two trefoiled lancets. The south chapel has a 15th-century flat-arched three-light east window and a doorway with pointed chamfered arch, flanked by two-light Decorated windows. This continues as the south aisle, refenestrated in the 15th century with gables over each of the three bays, containing two 15th-century windows with panel tracery, with a narrower western bay featuring a three-light window and a blocked 15th-century doorway. The north aisle contains four tall transomed Decorated-style windows in its north wall and a rose window at the west end. The projecting porch has diagonally offset buttresses flanking a four-light flat-arched window with segmental-arched heads and sunk spandrels. The west tower, dated 1481, comprises three stages with a recessed west window similar to All Saints, two-light windows to the upper stages, and a battlemented parapet with pinnacles surrounding a pyramid roof with fleche (which replaced a spire destroyed during the Civil War). The chancel arcade and south chapel date to the early 14th century.

Internally, the nave arches, rebuilt in 1841, rest upon late 12th-century piers with multi-scalloped capitals and square abaci. The early 14th-century south chancel arcade features continuous wave moulding, with chamfered arches to the 15th-century chancel arch and double-chamfered arches to the south arcade, including a squint set into the pier adjacent to the arch. Mid to late 19th-century open timber roofs are present throughout, except in the south arcade which retains 15th-century carpentry with slight timbers dividing the arched plastered vault of the eastern bay into panels; two arch-braced trusses are exposed in the south chapel. A door from the south porch leads into a vestibule containing a spiral stair with wrought iron balustrade and panelled dado. The north chapel is framed by two two-bay arcades.

The fittings include a gallery installed by Parsons in 1841; Perpendicular-style pulpit and choir stalls with openwork Perpendicular-style tracery to book rests, designed by Christian; an oak reredos also by Christian, forming the centrepiece to an ornate dado with Perpendicular-style panelling; a brass communion rail; and a 17th-century communion rail. The north chapel contains a Perpendicular-style organ case and screen by Christian.

The church contains a fine series of monuments dating from the late 17th to 19th centuries, including a Baroque memorial to Abel Gower (died 1669) with female allegorical figures set between twisted columns surmounted by an open pediment with putti. An unusual memorial in the south porch commemorates John Garmston Hopkins (died 1871) and incorporates a photograph of the deceased boy set into the stone.

The stained glass includes small fragments of medieval glass in the chancel side windows; an east window of 1884 and a north aisle window of 1901 (to Albert Buck) by Clayton and Bell; an east window in the south chapel of 1889 by Burlison and Grylls; a south window of the south chapel of 1889 by Lavers, Baraud and Westlake; and an aisle window of 1922 depicting the Good Shepherd by Archibald Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild.

The church was granted to the monks of Worcester Priory in the 12th century. The north aisle was rebuilt and the south porch added in 1841 by Parsons to house an interior gallery. The east end was extended and a north chapel with vestries were built in 1884 by Ewan Christian.