Church Of St John The Baptist

KINGSTON BAGPUIZE WITH SOUTHMOOR ABINGDON ROAD SU4098 (West side) Kingston Bagpuize 11/88 Church of St. John the Baptist 09/02/66

GV II

Church. 1799-1800 by John Fidel of Farringdon: remodelled in 1882 by Edwin Dolby of Abingdon. Coursed and dressed limestone on ashlar plinth, with rusticated quoins; hipped Welsh-slate roof. Nave with apse. 2-bay side walls, including south chapel, have blind rusticated round arches with inner round-arched leaded casements. Pedimented east gable wall has apse with similar surrounds to stained glass window. Pedimented west end has similar round-arched entry: paired Norman-style windows by Dolby surmount Doric entablature with columns framing plain double-leaf doors. Fine bell cupola: oak Doric columns dividing louvred sides, support lead roof with wrought-iron weathervane. Interior: late C19 benches and pulpit. Late C18 and early C19 wall tablets and Latin memorial tablet to George Rainsbee, d.1624. South Chapel has wall tablet to John Blandy, d.1844, and to John Blandy, d.1762, and his wife: latter has marble obelisk with 2 portrait medallions and flanked by putti, standing on entablature; fine monument to Edmund Fettiplace, d.1710, has tasselled canopy over folding drapery with urns, set over inscription tablet with achievement and winged putto at base. Plan and elevations of 1799 show the apse ascribed by Pensner to Dolby. (Bodleian Library, MS Top. Berks. C.57 pls.138, 139; John Betjeman and John Piper (Eds.), Hurray's Architectural Guide, Berkshire, p.131; Buildings of England: Berkshire, p.160; V.C.H.: Berkshire, Vol. IV, p.350; H.M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, 1978, p.306).

Listing NGR: SU4072798108