Church of St John Baptist and attached railings and gates

The Church of St John Baptist is a medieval parish church with attached railings and gates. It is the largest parish church in Gloucestershire and represents almost continuous building and alteration from the early 12th century through to the early 16th century, with major 19th-century restoration.

Building History

The chancel dates from around 1115, and was enlarged around 1180 and 1240, with further alterations in the early 14th and early 15th centuries. St Catherine's Chapel originated as a 12th-century north chancel aisle, altered and enlarged in the mid-15th and early to mid-16th centuries. The Lady Chapel was built around 1240 and rebuilt in the mid-15th century. The Chapel of St John the Baptist began as a 12th-century south chancel aisle, altered and enlarged in the mid-14th century. The Trinity Chapel dates from 1430. The aisled nave was constructed around 1120 and 1240, with the west ends of the aisles rebuilt in the early 14th century to accommodate tower buttresses, and the nave itself rebuilt between 1515 and 1530, except for the west ends of the aisles. The south porch dates from around 1490, and the west tower from the early 15th century.

The south porch was restored in 1831–33. A complete restoration was undertaken in 1865–67 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, which included the removal of 18th-century galleries and box pews.

Materials

The chancel, Lady Chapel, Chapel of St John the Baptist, and west ends of the aisle naves are built of coursed squared limestone. St Catherine's Chapel, the vestry, Trinity Chapel, nave, south porch, and west tower are constructed in limestone ashlar. The chancel, St Catherine's Chapel, and St John the Baptist's Chapel have stone slate roofs. The Trinity Chapel and nave have lead roofs. The roof covering to the Lady Chapel, south porch, and tower is not visible but is probably lead.

Plan

The church consists of a three-bay chancel with St Catherine's Chapel and the Lady Chapel to the north, and the Chapel of St John the Baptist and vestry to the south; a six-bay aisled nave with the Trinity Chapel to the north; a three-storey south porch; and a three-stage west tower.

Exterior: Chancel and Chapels

The chancel's east gable has offset angle buttresses and a five-light lancet window with a moulded hood. The south wall has two two-light square-headed clerestory windows with cusped lights and one two-light pointed window with geometrical tracery.

St Catherine's Chapel has an east gable with an offset angle buttress to the north and a four-light window with panel tracery, a four-centred arch head, and hoodmould. The north wall has four three-light clerestory windows with Tudor arch heads.

The Lady Chapel's east gable has offset angle buttresses to the north and a five-light window with panel tracery, a depressed arch head, and hoodmould. The gable is topped with an embattled parapet with blind tracery and crocketed finials. The north wall was rebuilt around 1820 except for the east window. It has four three-light pointed windows with panel tracery, the easternmost renewed, largely blocked, and with different pattern tracery. A moulded string with gargoyles and parapet continues from the east wall.

The vestry is single-storey with five single-light windows in splayed reveals to the east wall and three similar windows to the south wall. It has a coped parapet.

The Chapel of St John the Baptist has an east gable with a three-light lancet window with hoodmould. The south wall has two two-light pointed windows with geometrical tracery, a small door in a splayed reveal, and an embattled parapet.

The Trinity Chapel's east gable wall has one five-light window with panel tracery and a Tudor arch head, a plinth with moulded top, and a north east angle buttress continued above the embattled parapet with blind tracery as a crocketed finial. The north wall has four four-light pointed windows with panel tracery and hoodmoulds, a plinth with moulded top, and offset buttresses continued above the embattled parapet with blind tracery as crocketed finials.

Exterior: Nave and Aisles

The north nave aisle's east gable wall has a five-light lancet window in a basket arch opening, an embattled parapet with blind tracery, and a north east angle buttress continued as a crocketed finial above the parapet. The north wall has five four-light clerestory windows with panel tracery and four-centred arch heads with hoodmoulds, and one similar window at the west end that is three lights high. The west wall has one four-light pointed window with panel tracery.

The north porch has a pointed doorway with a moulded stone surround to the north wall and an embattled parapet.

The south nave aisle's east gable wall has an openwork parapet with crocketed finials. The south wall, to the east of the south porch, has two four-light clerestory windows with panel tracery and four-centred arch heads over two two-light pointed windows with panel tracery and hoodmoulds, and one four-light window three lights high with panel tracery and a four-centred arch head similar to the clerestory windows. There are two similar windows to the west of the south porch. Offset buttresses are continued as crocketed finials above the openwork parapet. The west wall has one five-light pointed window with panel tracery and hoodmould.

The nave's east gable wall has a seven-light window with panel tracery and a four-centred arch head over the chancel arch, and an openwork parapet with crocketed finials. The north and south walls each have six four-light clerestory windows with four-centred arch heads. The openwork parapet with crocketed finials has sculptures on the string course.

Exterior: South Porch

The south porch is three storeys high, three bays wide, and three bays deep. It has traceried panels covering the south, east, and west walls. To the south, there are three canted oriel windows at the first and second floors, two and three lights wide and three lights high, with four-centred arch heads. The ground floor has a doorway to the centre with a four-centred arched head flanked by two small doorways with four-centred arched heads, each with some panels above glazed.

Octagonal stair turrets at the north east and northwest corners are each linked to the body of the porch at first floor level by single-bay bridges. These bridges have three-light windows with panel tracery and square heads with embattled parapets, with pointed arches beneath leading to east and west doors to the porch in four-centred arch openings. To the west is a pair of panelled doors with the date and initials 1635 MS IH.

There are offset angle buttresses at all angles of the porch and to the south front; those to the south have niches. The porch is topped with an openwork parapet with crocketed finials.

Exterior: West Tower

The three-stage west tower has to the west wall a five-light pointed window with panel tracery over a pointed doorway with a moulded stone surround and hoodmould with quatrefoils in the spandrels. The two lower stages of the tower, formerly concealed by other buildings, have blind traceried panels. The top stage has similar panels and a three-light pointed louvred window with panel tracery to each face. There are flying buttresses to the east angles built into the west walls of the nave aisles, offset angle buttresses to the west, an embattled parapet with blind tracery, and crocketed finials.

Interior: Chancel

The chancel's east window sits within a mid-13th-century moulded arch with shafts carrying stiff-leaf capitals. Chamfered arches with shafts frame the late 13th-century windows to the north and south of the sanctuary.

The chancel was widened to the south around 1180 with a two-bay arcade. The round piers—the western with a leaf capital, the eastern a reworked Roman column—survive, now supporting triple chamfered pointed arches. The western arch is infilled by the organ.

The north wall has a two-bay arcade with double chamfered pointed arches from around 1420. The mid-14th-century clerestory windows—two of two lights and one single-light with square heads and cusped lights—are now partially blocked. The chancel arch was enlarged to its present form in the mid-14th century.

The chancel screen is mid-16th-century below, with pierced carving between a transom and solid panels beneath. A canopy was added by Scott, and the screen was raised in 1906 with the east side carved. The sanctuary has a carved stone reredos by Scott and a mid-18th-century mahogany communion rail.

Interior: St Catherine's Chapel

The north wall has an early 20th-century round-headed doorway into the Lady Chapel, a remnant of the original church and originally external. A three-bay pointed arcade with hollow mouldings dates from around 1450–60, when the chapel was extended eastward on the foundation of the Chantry of St Catharine and St Nicholas. Wall paintings from this period depict St Christopher on the north wall and St Catharine on the south wall. Early 14th-century wall paintings survive at the west end of the north wall.

The stone fan-vault, dated 1508 and donated by Abbot John Hakebourne, has bosses with his mitre and initials, royal arms, and the pomegranate for Catherine of Aragon. A late 15th-century oak screen sits within a contemporary four-centred arch on mid-13th-century bases and lower shafts.

The sanctuary has a reredos of 1905 carved in Oberammergau and painted by William Butchart, communion rails, and pavement by Ninian Comper.

Interior: Lady Chapel

Rebuilt around 1450, the Lady Chapel has a timber ceiling with carved bosses and corbels. The south wall has a bracket for a former image of St Nicholas. Wall paintings to the south wall above the arcade include a Judgement to the west. A late 15th-century oak screen sits in a contemporary four-centred arch on mid-13th-century bases and lower shafts. To the west is an 18th-century marble font.

Interior: Chapel of St John the Baptist

Now the choir vestry, the organ—reconstructed in 1897 in a case designed by Scott—fills the north west portion of the chapel.

Interior: Trinity Chapel

Constructed from 1430, the Trinity Chapel's east wall has an elaborate reredos with canopied niches. The four-bay south arcade has piers of four shafts and four hollows surmounted by shield-bearing winged angels, with the Yorkist badge of falcon and fetterlock at the apex of each moulded pointed opening. This design is echoed on the north wall. A stone-traceried openwork screen with two ogee doorways stands to the south. The chapel has a contemporary timber ceiling.

Interior: Nave

Rebuilt between 1516 and 1530, the six-bay nave has arcades to the north and south aisles with tall compound piers with eight shafts. Shields borne by demi-angels carry the arms or merchants' marks of contributors to the rebuilding. Blind traceried panels decorate the east, north, and south walls, surrounding and below the window over the chancel arch and below the clerestory windows.

The east wall has, to the south of the chancel arch, a small round arch now housing the Boleyn Cup, perhaps for a recessed altar off a south transept of the church of 1120.

The Garstang Chapel in the south east corner of the south nave aisle is a mid-15th-century chantry chapel enclosed by a carved oak screen with an original iron closing ring to the door.

A rare 15th-century stone pulpit of wineglass shape has pierced panels with crocketed canopies and pinnacles over ogee arches with tracery. The original colour was retouched in 1865.

The Perpendicular font, probably 14th-century and octagonal with panelled sides, stands in the second bay from the west of the north arcade. It was removed from the church in the 18th century and restored in 1865.

The pews by Scott were copied from one surviving original.

Interior: South Porch

The entrance has a fan vault and an early 17th-century stone dole-table. The two storeys above were rebuilt as a single-height room in 1831–33 (not inspected).

Monuments

The church contains numerous monuments, brasses, and wall tablets. The wall tablets were re-arranged by Scott. Monuments include:

Lady Chapel: In the north east corner, a large tomb to Humfry Bridges and his wife (1598 and 1620) with recumbent effigies under a canopy with a coffered arch. Two sons kneel at either end under separate canopies, and six daughters are shown to the front. This is by Baldwin of Stroud. To the south wall is a semi-reclining effigy of Sir Thomas Master (1680). There are other tablets and headstones, and 15th- and 17th-century brasses.

St Catherine's Chapel: A recumbent stone effigy of a layman or merchant in a panelled recess to the north of the sanctuary.

St John the Baptist's Chapel: Marble kneeling figures of George Monox (1638) and his wife on a raised tomb with a canopy and broken pediment, attributed to Thomas Stanton of Holborn.

Trinity Chapel: Bathurst family memorials including the first Earl and Countess Bathurst (1776) with busts by Joseph Nollekens, a bust of the second Earl Bathurst (1794), and six 15th-century brasses.

Garstang Chapel: Three busts on an entablature to Rebecca Powell, founder of Powell's School, and her two husbands (1718).

Stained Glass

Medieval glass has been largely lost since the 18th century. The east window of the chancel has medieval glass in the lower half of the three central lights imported from Siddington. The remainder is made up, partly from fragments, in the late 18th century by Samuel Lysons. Medieval fragments appear in each window of the Trinity Chapel. Early 16th-century glass survives in the south window of the south nave aisle. 19th-century glass is by Hardman.

Attached Railings and Gates

The railings to the right of the south porch, approximately 2 metres high and probably 19th-century, have shaped baluster heads and dog bars with a matching gate. A length of railings and gate attached to the south east corner of the vestry and bounding the churchyard have sharply pointed tops and dog bars.