Church Of St John

Church of St John

This is the parish church of Holdenhurst, rebuilt in 1833-4 by George Evans of Wimborne and enlarged by Benjamin Ferrey in 1873. It is constructed of coursed grey limestone with Bath stone dressings and a stone tiled roof.

The church consists of a four-and-a-half bay nave without aisles, a west porch, a small apsidal chancel with a vestry to the north, and a south transept originally intended for a private pew but now used as an organ chamber.

The most striking external feature is the large octagonal bellcote or cupola corbelled out from the west gable. It has thin pinnacles and an ogee cap rising to a finial with a weathervane. The corbelling develops from a shallow square projection containing a three-light west window with four-centred openings and Neo-Tudor tracery. Below the west window is a small porch or narthex, with the door on its north side. Two uncusped lancet openings flank the west window. The nave is buttressed on both north and south sides with two-light tracery; the south transept matches.

The interior has white-painted walls and a plain finish. The open timber roof of 1873 features false hammerbeams and Tudor-arched trusses with traceried spandrels. A round-headed chancel arch rests on small corbels. In the chancel, closely set roof timbers form a half-wheel over the apse. The floor has wood block in the nave and some red and black tiling at the east end, mostly now carpeted.

The reredos of 1873 is of coloured marbles with a gabled centre and pinnacles, and reportedly incorporates stone tesselations from the Mount of Olives, Constantinople and Rome. It also lines the flanking walls. The font is possibly Late Norman, from the old church. It has a square bowl with rounded corners and five large flutes to each side, a heavy central stem, and cylindrical columns at the corners. The bowl and corner columns are of dark polished stone, probably Purbeck marble. The oak pulpit has plain panels and pierced arches at the top, on a stone base, and dates from 1873, as do the pine bench pews.

The stained glass includes patterned glass with medieval-style medallions of around 1873 in the east windows. A window in the south aisle by Nathaniel Westlake of Lavers & Barraud dates to around 1894. Three windows in the style of Kempe date from 1898-1907. Two good single lights of 1953-4 by G.E.R. Smith in the west wall depict the Sower and Reaper.

The medieval parish of Holdenhurst included most of modern Bournemouth, except Kinson and Talbot village in the north-west. By 1829 the old church was in poor repair and too small for its congregation of around 620, which included residents of exclusive villas around the Bourne stream, three and a half miles south-west. The old church stood about 100 yards from the present site, which was given by Sir George Tapps-Gervis. The foundation stone for the new church was laid on 18 July 1833 by the second Earl of Malmesbury, and it was consecrated on 9 November 1834. It accommodated 472 persons at a cost of £1,160. The architect was George Evans of Wimborne (c.1800-73), son of William Evans, County Surveyor of Dorset; George succeeded him in this post in 1842. Medieval materials were not reused in the rebuilding. St John remained the parish church of Bournemouth until the establishment of St Peter around 1845. The original design included a west gallery and a very shallow projection for the altar; both were removed in 1873 by Benjamin Ferrey (1810-80), a well-known Gothic Revivalist church architect and pupil of A.C. Pugin who later became A.W.N. Pugin's biographer (1861). Ferrey set up in independent practice around 1834 and was diocesan architect to Bath and Wells from 1841 until his death. Born in Christchurch, he was architect to Sir George Tapps-Gervis from 1836 for the development of the Westover estate, which established Bournemouth as a select resort. This connection likely explains his commission here.