Church Of St John

766/6/109 HIGH STREET 15-JUL-76 WROXALL CHURCH OF ST JOHN

(Formerly listed as: HIGH STREET WROXALL ST JOHN'S CHURCH)

II Nave and chancel of 1876-7 by T R Saunders of Ventnor in Early English style. Tower erected in 1911 in Gothic style. Some furnishings of 1911.

MATERIALS: Coursed stone rubble with slate roofs, except for shingled roof of tower.

PLAN: Four bay nave, two bay chancel and south west tower.

EXTERIOR: South west tower of three stages with pyramidal roof with lucarnes surmounted by a metal weathervane. Clock face to upper stage and triple lancets to bell stage with drip-mould. Arched doorcase with colonnettes and drip-mould. The west gable end has a triple lancet window, the central light higher with colonnettes and ballflower corbels and end buttresses. The north and south sides of the nave have arched windows with paired lancets and oval lights above and the bays are divided by buttresses. The chancel east window has a triple lancet window, the central light higher, with drip-moulds and ballflower corbels, and offset corner buttresses. The north and south walls of the chancel are obscured by later stone additions.

INTERIOR: the nave has a kingpost roof with arch braces supported on stone corbels. The chancel arch has paired colonnettes. The chancel has a wooden ribbed barrel-vaulted roof supported on stone corbels and encaustic tiled floor.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Wooden reredos of 1898 with trefoiled painted panels and wooden panelling. 1911 east window depicting the Assumption. Side windows by Heaton, Butler and Baine. Window at west end by Lawrence Lee, 1952. Small octagonal stone font. Wooden pews, pulpit, and choir stalls.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Stone war memorial to the south west of the tower. It comprises a cross mounted on a tapering octagonal shaft with gabled projection with trefoil panels near the top, set on a square plinth with curved top, on which the names of the fallen are inscribed. It has three steps.

HISTORY: The south-west tower was erected by public subscription in 1911 to house the clock presented to the parish by a Crimean veteran, Henry Charles Millett, R.N.

SOURCES Lloyd, D and Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Isle of Wight (2006), 303.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The Church of St John the Evangelist, Wroxall, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural Design: nave and chancel were designed in coursed stone rubble by local architect T R Saunders of Ventnor with a landmark south-west tower of 1911 added in matching style and materials. * Interior Interest: original fittings including stained glass by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 25 October 2017.