Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist, Enmore Green

Built in 1842–3 by George Alexander of London, this is a Neo-Norman chapel of ease to St Mary, Motcombe. The church opened in August 1843 and was incorporated into the borough of Shaftesbury in 1933.

The building is constructed of ashlar sandstone (probably local Greensand stone) with a blue slate roof. It follows a cruciform plan with an apsidal chancel and a squat crossing tower rising in one short stage above the roofline. The nave has three bays and is spanned by galleries at the west end and in both transepts, originally reached by stair turrets in the angles between the chancel and transepts, accessed from the exterior at ground level only.

Exterior

The church displays typical Neo-Norman styling. The crossing tower features raised strips like clasping buttresses at the angles, two bell-openings in each face consisting of two narrow lights under an outer round arch, a corbel table, and an embattled parapet. Windows throughout have a single order of colonnettes with simple scallop-type capitals under round arches. The lower walls of the four arms are plain with all windows set high up, above a continuous stringcourse at sill level. The semicircular apse is lit by three small single lancets spaced widely apart. The transepts carry triple windows facing north and south under a continuous outer moulding, with a single light above in the gable. The west gable displays a large oculus with star-pattern tracery and a small central door with one order of colonnettes. The stair turrets in the eastern angles have been removed; the southern turret now connects with the interior as a secondary exit.

Interior

The interior is plain with white painted walls and features the expected crossing with large round arches on all sides. Nave bays are defined by heavy columnar wall shafts with Norman capitals that act as corbels for the roof trusses. The roof is of dark-stained deal, with simple nave trusses and radial rafters over the apse. Stone flagged floors underlie the seating. Three galleries of 1843 survive in both transepts and the west end of the nave, though staircase access has been altered, particularly to the north transept. A vestry was formed beneath the south gallery. The west end contains a tongue-and-groove boarded partition forming a small inner lobby with stairs to the west gallery (south) and toilet and kitchen (north), the latter created in 2004. The north-west corner of the nave originally housed a small robing room, removed perhaps when the south transept vestry was created.

Principal Fittings

The most significant fitting is a lead-lined font of possibly 15th-century date, with a square bowl and chamfered angles on a square foot. Each face of the bowl is carved with two crude 'poppyhead' motifs. The font was evidently taken from a local church, though not from Motcombe, which retains its own medieval font. The font cover is of oak, probably 17th or early 18th century, with a flat panel, raised border, and cyma reversa moulding. Its central finial is of different origin, possibly 15th century, crudely cut from a single piece of oak with pierced ogee arches on each face, each arch having a mullion and transom forming a cross through its centre; the transoms are actually the edges of a solid shelf. The top is roughly pyramidal.

A commemorative pulpit of dark oak dates to around 1950 and is of good quality, featuring linenfold panels and painted military insignia in shields at the top of each panel. The nave benches are of stained pine, possibly original to the church; they are thinly detailed and spartan, in poor condition. A faculty for their removal was applied for in 2009. Pews of the same type occupy the galleries. An ex-situ vestry screen of pine, dating to circa 1850–70, features Gothic arched openings. Three apse windows contain stained glass of circa 1843, with heraldic devices and typical orange-yellow patterning.

Subsidiary Features

Stone steps approach the west entrance, with a ramp for disabled access added in 2004.

Historical and Architectural Context

George Alexander (died circa 1884) practised in London and Highworth, Wiltshire, and designed several small Neo-Norman churches of this period, including the very similar Christ Church at East Stour, a few miles west of Enmore Green. A fashion for Norman Revival churches swept the country from around 1840 before falling equally quickly from favour.

Enmore Green lies below a steep escarpment approximately half a mile north-west of Shaftesbury. The churchyard rises so steeply behind the church to the south and east that visitors look down upon its tower—an oddity noted by Thomas Hardy in Jude the Obscure (Part Fourth, chapter 1): "It was a place where the churchyard lay nearer heaven than the church steeple." The church is unusually intact in its original architectural form; it apparently underwent no later Victorian restoration, only piecemeal changes made locally.