Church of St John the Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This church was built between 1880 and 1881, designed by JP St Aubyn, with a later south porch added subsequently. The fittings were created by G Fellowes Prynne. The stained glass windows are by several makers: Clayton & Bell, CE Kempe, William Morris of Westminster, and G Maile.

The building is constructed of rock-faced, coursed Castle-an-Dinas stone with external dressings of Ham Hill Stone and slate roofs. The interior features Doulting stone dressings. The plan is cruciform, comprising a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with north and south aisles, a single-bay chancel, meeting rooms (formerly the vestry) beneath the chancel, and a square south porch.

The church sits on a sloping site in a residential area to the north-east of Penzance town centre. It is plain in character and Early English in style. The nave is taller than the shallow transepts and narrow aisles. The chancel has a single bay. On the south elevation stands a double-height porch with a pyramidal roof and a short octagonal tower with a louvred upper storey. The north chancel aisle has a pitched roof with a half-octagonal turret expressing the internal spiral staircase. The south chancel aisle has a lean-to roof. All gable ends have flat verge copings topped with stone crosses.

The double-height south porch features a battered plinth below a moulded string course, with a central pointed-arch doorway and pointed-arch windows on the east and west elevations. Tall wrought-iron boot scrapers flank the granite entrance steps. A single-storey porch with a pitched roof stands on the north side. The east and west windows are three lancets, as are those in the transepts. Below the east window is a Greek cross carved in a roundel; beneath this is a band of lancet windows of equal height—two groups of three separated by a buttress—which light the basement. External access to the former vestry is on the east side. The corners of the chancel aisles and nave each have staged pilaster buttresses.

The south porch interior contains inner and outer timber doors with wrought-iron strap hinges set within pointed arches. To the west of the inner door is a slate First World War memorial tablet; to the east, above a narrow door (possibly intended for an unbuilt tower), stands a statue of St John the Baptist. The floor is laid with on-end slate, and the windows are recessed paired lancets with clear glass.

The church is 109 feet long with a 50-foot-high open king-post roof above a four-bay clerestory and five-bay nave arcade. The columns of the arcade lack capitals. Walls are plastered and painted around the Doulting stone dressings; no trace remains of painted texts visible in historic photographs. The north and south transepts and nave arcade have pointed arches of equal height; the chancel arch is slightly higher as the chancel steps up from the nave. On the north side of the chancel is an organ loft with a carved and pierced timber gallery; the space below is enclosed with twentieth-century timber glazed panels. The south side of the chancel contains three cusped-arch sedilia. A step with decorative brass altar rails leads to the sanctuary, which is floored with encaustic tiles by Godwin and the Architectural Pottery Company.

The oak altar with painted panels depicting Biblical figures stands centrally in the sanctuary on a further step. The oak reredos spans the width of the east wall with a carved, pierced border and further painted panels of Biblical figures and scenes, together with a large central panel of Christ and an inscription from John 12:32. The east window, by Clayton & Bell, comprises three lancets depicting the Ascension of Christ in glory. Its dedication to Queen Victoria and Boer War soldiers is inscribed on a large brass plaque on the south wall of the chancel. The choir stalls are of oak with carved and pierced fronts and foliate finials.

The chancel is separated from the nave by an elaborate wrought-iron and brass screen on a granite plinth, with twisted finials and a central two-leaf gate. The south chancel aisle contains a staircase to the meeting rooms (formerly the vestry) in the basement, surrounded by a simple wrought-iron balustrade. The nave floor is carpeted and boarded, with simple oak pews to the front part of the nave. The pulpit stands on the north side of the chancel arch, adjacent to the chancel screen, and comprises carved oak panels on a carved limestone plinth with granite steps.

The stone font, located in the south transept, is carved with simple Celtic crosses and has a pierced and carved oak conical cover surmounted with a dove. Above the font is a three-lancet window by William Morris and Company of Westminster, installed in 1955. The north and south aisles are lit by paired lancets, mainly of stained glass with various dedications dating to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the north aisle, one window is by CE Kempe (dated 1901), and there are three further windows depicting St Francis, St Giles, and St Elizabeth by G Maile, dating to the 1970s. Other windows are filled with leaded clear glass.

Due to the sloping site, the former vestry is located beneath the chancel. It comprises two rooms and an entrance hall, accessed externally from the east and internally from the south chancel aisle. The principal space has a low barrel-vault ceiling, with two sets of triple-lancets on the east wall with leaded clear glass. The internal doors are panelled pine with decorative wrought-iron strap-hinges. On the south wall of the northern space is painted the inscription 'The LORD is in His Holy Temple'. Most other finishes and fixtures are twentieth-century.