Church Of St John Baptist

ST 98 NE CHARLTON PARK STREET (south side)

6/34 Church of St John Baptist

28.10.59

GV II*

Anglican Parish Church. Late C12 (north arcade), early C13 (west tower and north chapel), C15 with mid C17 and further late C19 restoration. Squared and coursed rubble with stone dressings, some dressed stone to chancel and north porch, ashlar battlements and copings, stone slate roofs. Nave, chancel, west tower, north aisle and chapel, north and south porches. Nave south side has one 2- light C15 window under flat head and a 4-light similar window with hoodmould; east buttress with set-offs and embattled parapet. Chancel has 3-light C19 east window with curvilinear tracery. North chapel has pointed-arched C13 east window of 2 trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoil above; 2-light C15 window to north wall. North aisle has two C15 four-light windows under Tudor arches with hoodmoulds; moulded string course and embattled parapet. Aisle west window of 2-light is C15 but restored. Four-stage west tower unbuttressed but with moulded string courses defining each receding stage; canted staircase turret on south face and pierced quatrefoil parapet with corner pinnacles, 3-light C13 style window to first stage of west facade, single lancet openings on all faces of second stage and 2-round-headed-light bell openings. Gabled C19 north porch. Gabled south porch with Tudor-arched entrance and sundial above. Tudor-arched south doorway with plank door and Decorated statue niche above; coved ribbed plaster vault. Interior. 4-bay north arcade with circular piers, trumpet and stiff-leaf capitals and round-headed arches. Flat rafter roofs to nave and aisle. Double-chamfered chancel arch. Two-bay C19 arcade to north chapel. Coved ribbed plaster vaults. on moulded wallplates to chancel and chapel. Fittings. Benefaction board under tower: 1706, Lady Winchcomb, section of 1630 screen and 1891 stained glass west window. Nave has late C12 font with hexagonal base and bowl with cable and pellet moulding. Oil painting of the Virgin and Child above south door; further painting of same subject to left of chancel arch. Above C19 pulpit on nave south wall is the former carved backboard of the Caroline pulpit dated 1630. This corresponds in style and inscription to that at St Michael's, Brinkworth (q.v.). North aisle west window has 1876 stained glass and north-west window is a 1941 memorial by G.E.R. Smith to the 20th Earl of Suffolk of the Army Bomb Disposal Unit: inscription by John Masefield. Chancel has late C19 stained glass. North chapel has large 1598 monument to Sir Henry Knyvett and family: An eight-poster with strapwork decoration to the tomb chest; recumbent stone effigies and kneeling children. Adjacent to this monument is the organ encased in sections of screenwork partly C15 and partly Jacobean/Caroline. (Aubrey & Jackson, Wiltshire Collections, 1862; N. Pevsner, The Buildings of Engand: Wiltshire, 1975)

Listing NGR: ST9590588956