Church Of St John The Baptist

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 NEWCOMEN ROAD 673-1/8/183 (West side) Church of St John the Baptist

GV II

Roman Catholic church. Nave 1868-9, chancel 1873-6 by JA Hansom, architect. Local limestone rubble laid to rough courses, Bathstone dressings (some replaced with concrete in the late C20); slate roof. PLAN: Church was built with No.20 (qv), the priest's house, with a linking block making an overall U-plan. Nave is end onto the street with apsidal western chancel. Gallery at street end. Doorway into right (north) side from the link block which runs along the street. EXTERIOR: Minimal early Decorated style. Tall gable end on chamfered plinth to street. 2-window front. Paired trefoil-headed lancets to the lower level, taller lancets above and roundel above them, all with tracery based on trefoils. Image niche between the upper lancets with Gothic canopy and pinnacles. Bathstone quoins and bands at window sill and arch level although most replaced with concrete. Front of the link block to right in same style. Doorway a 2-centred arch with hoodmould containing plank door with Gothic-style ferramenta. Small lancet above lighting the steps inside and presumably secondary gabled dormer above that. Chancel has 2 arched, almost triangular-headed, windows with tracery making 3 quatrefoils. INTERIOR: Door into nave similar to external one. Nave has plastered walls, floor of C20 plastic tiles and 4-bay roof of open scissor-braced trusses. Tall chancel arch springing from slender columns standing on corbels, and similar columns to the ribbed roof of the chancel. Trefoil-headed arch to piscina. Stone altar with blind Gothic arcade to marble panels. Ornate Gothic-style reredos with carved figures in niches either side of taller central niche with tall canopy for the cross. Another similar, but less ornate, reredos against south wall behind a plainer stone altar. C20 communion rail. Plain joinery to the gallery and benches. This modest church adds variety to an attractive street of predominantly C19 architecture. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: P.324).

Listing NGR: SX8778651095