Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist

A church comprising a nave with north and south aisles, chancel with flanking chapels, a western tower, and attached church hall. The building spans several centuries: the nave, arcade and south chapel date to the early 14th century, the tower to the 15th century, and the north chapel to the late 16th century. The north aisle was widened and the church underwent restoration in 1858 by T. Goodchild. A church hall and extensions were added to the south side circa 1980.

The exterior displays a mix of construction materials: hearthstone and flint chequerwork on the tower, knapped flint on the north chancel chapel, and flint and mortar conglomerate on the remainder, with plain tiled roofs throughout. The chancel with its flanking chapels sits east of the aisled nave, with a porch and church hall to the south and the tower at the west end.

The two-stage battlemented tower to the west features offset diagonal buttresses and a string course between stages, with a taller stair turret to its south-east. Each face of the upper stage contains a 2-light round-arched louvred opening, though only the eastern face remains unaltered. The west face displays a clockface and lancet window, while the lower stage features a deeply cut foiled-head 4-light Perpendicular-style 19th-century window above paired arched doors. These doors are set within a stone surround and surmounted by elaborate strapwork hinges and label moulding with diamond stops.

The aisles contain 4-light tall Perpendicular-style windows with trefoil cusping to the tracery. The south side features arched 2-light and quatrefoil windows, with additional windows to the east of a buttress. An offset diagonal buttress on the angle of the south aisle incorporates a 19th-century window. The east end preserves an original Perpendicular-style window with unusually deep splayed surround, both internally and externally. Its unusual tracery comprises 5-lights with smaller sub-mullions and triangular windows within a two-centred head, all sheltered by a hood mould.

The north chapel consists of three bays with 8-light mullioned and transomed windows on the north side, 4-light brick mullioned windows, a 2-light window on the east wall, and two 19th-century 2-light mullioned windows on the north aisle.

Internally, the three-bay nave arcades rest on round piers with two plain chamfered orders, supporting columns on moulded bases beneath moulded caps. A late 15th-century tower arch displays two continuously-moulded orders separated by a 3/4 hollow moulding. The chancel and nave are divided by a cambered beam. The chancel chapels span three bays; one bay to the north chapel is blocked, while the others are supported on circular columns and half-column responds. The south chancel chapel arcade features two wave and ogee-moulded orders with roll-moulded circular bases.

The church contains an 18th-century font with a black marble octagonal bowl on a white baluster stem and black marble base. Early 18th-century communion rails survive, with the remainder of fittings dating to the 19th and 20th centuries. The monuments include an early 19th-century tablet to Elizabeth Creize (died 1804) by Bacon Junior, a monument to William Aldersley (died 1800) in the north aisle by Flaxman, and a Baroque-style monument to William Parson (died 1799) with thick marble surround and cherubs heads above and below. The north window of the north chapel commemorates R. S. Budgett (died 1888) and comprises two sets of four lights designed by Rossetti via F. J. Shields.