Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist

A parish church of 12th-century origin, partly rebuilt in the 13th century, with a 13th-century porch and 15th-century tower. The walls are constructed of random rubble and ashlar limestone with a stone slate roof.

The church comprises a nave without aisles, a west tower, a south porch, and a chancel with a former columbarium (dovecote) positioned above it.

The south doorway is a particularly fine example of Romanesque work. It features a carved lintel with a canted top serving as tympanum, beneath which sits a shouldered arch. The inner arch displays beakhead ornament whilst the outer arch is decorated with chevrons, all protected by a billeted hoodmould. The tympanum itself is carved with Christ in Majesty with the hand of God above, surrounded by the emblems of the Four Evangelists and the Agnus Dei. The doorway is supported by two orders of columns: the outer columns have scalloped capitals and the inner columns bear carved grotesque heads. Above the doorway stands a parapet gable with a simple pointed porch arch and a hollow saddle stone; small trefoil-headed side windows and stone seats are set internally. A banded plank south door with a 15th-century closing ring closes the entrance. Corbel tables with sets of carved animal heads decorate the north and south nave walls.

The south wall contains a 15th-century two-light window with an ogee head positioned to the right of the porch; some masonry here displays Norman chevron decoration. Two offset buttresses sit at the south-east corner, one of which is linked to the corbel table. A blocked north doorway with a canted top mirrors the south doorway opposite, with a matching window to its left. A two-light window to the right features a rectilinear tracery head. An offset buttress sits at the north-east corner.

The chancel is lit by a small round-headed east window with crenellation ornament and a pellet-moulded border. A billeted string course marks the original eaves line. A plain lancet window sits in the parapet gable above. Clasping corner buttresses are positioned at the angles, with an offset buttress below the east window added in 1824. A central offset buttress to the south chancel wall has lancets on either side; one stone bears intersecting arcade decoration. A central flat buttress on the north wall has a fragment of the corbel table attached, lining through with the eaves line on the east wall. A 15th-century two-light window is positioned to the left, with a very small round-headed window to the right. At the junction with the nave stands a projecting rectangular stair turret with two small lancets and a hipped roof.

The large 15th-century three-stage tower has diagonal offset buttresses and a continuous moulded plinth broken by a west door with a four-centred arched head, moulded with a hood and square carved labels. An image niche is mounted on the sill of a four-light west window which features rectilinear tracery and carved angel stops to the hood bearing heraldic shields. Offsets to each buttress in the second stage are carved with figures, two of which carry musical instruments—a citole and a shawm. Cinquefoil-headed windows light the ringing chamber on the west and south faces. A rectangular stair turret on the south side has two small trefoil-headed windows and reduces in size after the ringing chamber. The belfry openings are four-light with Tudor arches, stone louvres, and lozenge laurels to the hood. A crenellated parapet with diagonal animal gargoyles linked by moulding sits at the top.

Interior

The interior is plastered and limewashed. The inner openings to the north and south doors are round-headed; the north doorway is adjacent to an area of uncovered medieval painting. The nave roof is a 15th-century four-bay collar truss with cusped collars and arched bracing. Principal rafters are supported on horizontal projecting wall beams bearing carved shields on their ends. Two rows of moulded purlins and three rows of cusped arched windbracing are present; iron tie rods were added later. A tall composite moulded tower arch with piers supports a lierne vault below the tower. A four-centred arched doorway provides access to the tower stairs. A medieval coffin lid stands against the west wall.

A west arch to the former tower displays chevron mouldings and a pelleted hoodmould terminated by animal heads. Scalloped capitals to columns on the west side of the piers are present. A cross vault sits below the former tower, and a shouldered arch leads to the doorway of the columbarium stairs in the north wall.

The chancel arch is three-dimensional with chevron moulding and crenellation ornament to the hood. Hollow mouldings decorate the respond faces. A roll-moulded cross-vault spans the chancel, with a central carved boss of four grotesque masks and a belt. A chevron arch with paterae frames the deeply splayed east window.

The south chancel window has a single piscina bowl in its sill, and a trefoil-headed credence-table sits in the east reveal.

Furniture and Fittings

A 17th-century communion rail incorporates older woodwork. A hexagonal carved pulpit dated 1609 has been crudely cut off and mounted on an octagonal moulded stone base with pierced trefoil ornament. A reading desk mounted on the front of the box pews was made from a pulpit tester dated 1604. The box pews appear to be 18th-century in style, though they may date from the 1850 restoration.

A large memorial on the south nave wall commemorates Thomas Horton of Combend Manor, who died in 1687. It comprises a black marble inscription panel with a stone bolection-moulded surround, a pulvinated frieze to a segmental pediment above, and an oval marble panel in the tympanum with a Baroque surround. A central death's head sits below, decorated with swags. 19th-century memorials occupy the north wall. The stained glass is predominantly 20th-century.

The columbarium, reached by a stone spiral staircase, has pigeon holes in the north and east walls.

History

The church originally possessed a central tower, which was removed in the 13th century when a second cross-vaulted bay with a columbarium over was built in its place.