Church Of St John

TL 96 SE ELMSWELL CHURCH ROAD

5/25 Church of St John 15.ll.54

GV II*

Parish church, medieval. Restored 1862/64 by E.C. Hakewill and 1872 by J D. Wyatt. Nave, chancel, north and south aisles, west tower, south porch, north vestry and organ chamber. Flint and septaria rubble with freestone dressings (C19 work has knapped flint and rubble). Slated nave roof, plaintiled chancel roof. Flat aisle roofs behind parapets. Parapet gables. Mid and late C14 work in chancel: hoodmoulded south doorway, reticulated traceried east window and two south windows, ogee-headed piscina. Mid C14 south nave arcade of 5 bays, with fluted octagonal shafts and moulded capitals. Reset and restored late C14 aisle windows. Fine late C15 tower, with twin belfry windows on each face under a single hoodmould. Good flushwork tracery to parapets, and on buttress faces: at the head of each buttress is a canopied image niche. A frieze around the base has more panels with intricate tracery. West doorway with grotesque hoodmould corbels. Good C15 nave clerestory: 5 bays of traceried windows, between each is a pillar once supporting a figure, and beneath is a frieze moulded and with fleurons of a wide variety of designs. Tall C15 shafted tower arch. In 1872 the north aisle was added: the north doorway and several windows, all of late C13, were re-set in its walls: Y- traceried windows, and the doorway which has a heavy hoodmould with grotesque corbels. The C15 porch has 3 image niches over the entrance, whose jambs and shafts remain. Otherwise the porch was restored in 1862. Mid C14 inner south doorway. Interior fittings: The northern arm of a C15 parclose screen in the south aisle: 4 traceried panels with cresting above, the solid panels below have C20 painted figures. C15 octagonal limestone font: the sunk faces of the bowl have shields each bearing a letter, beneath it are angels, and birds support the stem. 5 good C15 poppyhead benches with traceried ends and buttresses in the north aisle, and 5 more in the south. A fine monument in the south aisle to Sir Robert Gardener (d.1619): a coloured reclining figure with his kneeling son beside him and an empty gown lying below. A coffered canopy on Corinthian columns and his Coat of Arms forming a crown. A C15 slab in the south aisle floor with large brass sinking: a figure within a large cross. The C19 work was as follows: Virtual rebuilding of south aisle by E.C. Hakewill in 1862, and remodelling of chancel in 1864. Addition of north aisle and rebuilding of main roof by J.D. Wyatt in 1872.

Listing NGR: TL9820263599