Church of St John the Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist

This Early English Gothic church is built of squared snecked uncoursed Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings and bands, with a 20th-century tile roof. It comprises a combined nave and apsidal-ended chancel with an organ loft to the south and vestry to the north, flanked by aisles, transepts, and a south porch.

The gabled west end features four elongated lancets set between deeply projecting buttresses. On the south side is a projection beneath a hipped roof with a small trefoil light. The three-bay nave has paired lancets, and the gabled south porch displays a cinquefoil-headed arch, plank door, and trefoil lights in the side walls. A further doorway with a similar arch appears at the western end.

The transepts align with the nave. The north transept is gabled with three elongated lancets, the central one taller than the others. The south transept is heightened and contains two elongated trefoil-headed lancets with quatrefoil windows and an octofoil window above. At the apex sits a hipped bell turret supported on wooden brackets, containing a bell dated 1674 by Anthony Bartlett, originally made for a Hampshire church. At the eastern end of the south transept, a narrow octagonal stone turret with spire rises to a metal cross finial.

The chancel features a curved apse with seven lancet windows and quatrefoil lights above, with the foundation stone set centrally below. To the south, the curved projection of the organ loft has a triple lancet to the south and a single lancet to the east. The square vestry projection to the north displays a triple lancet to the east.

Internally, the three-bay nave and transepts share arcades with pointed arches and piers shaped as Greek crosses. The roof, continuous into the chancel, is boarded and of arch-braced construction with tie beams supported on curved braces and stone corbels. Above the tie beams are arches with kingposts and raking struts, with two tiers of purlins. Two trusses have additional supports following war damage.

The 19th-century font is of Caen stone with a mid-20th-century wooden cover. The west wall displays a stone wall monument in medieval style to the first incumbent. The south aisle contains two 1931 stained glass windows depicting St John the Evangelist and St Cecilia, commemorating Canon Barker and Mrs Evaline Clark. Two further south aisle windows have 20th-century stained glass, including one depicting Dorcas. Two north aisle windows retain some replaced parts of 19th-century stained glass. The north transept holds a three-window 1951 Te Deum stained glass panel by Francis Spear depicting Christ in Glory, with a brass wall war memorial beneath. The church contains a number of 19th-century wooden benches, and the octagonal carved wooden pulpit, lectern, and organ date to 1882. The apse contains an aumbry on the north side, and its seven stained glass windows depicting Christ and saints date to 1950 by Francis Spear.