Church Of Saint John

Church of Saint John

This parish church at Countisbury is a Grade II* listed building comprising 18th and 19th century work on the site of an earlier church. The nave was rebuilt and a porch probably added in 1796, with the nave further remodelled in the mid-19th century. The tower dates from 1836, while the chancel was rebuilt and a vestry and north aisle were added in 1846, all undertaken at the expense of Reverend Walter Stevenson Halliday of Glenthorne.

The building is constructed of coursed stone rubble, with 19th century work roughly coursed and featuring dressed quoins and ashlar dressings to openings. The roofs are slate. The plan consists of a 3-bay nave with north aisle and south porch, a chancel with lean-to north vestry, and a west tower. Straight joints flanking the south door of the nave possibly indicate survival of part of the old fabric or 19th century rebuilding over 18th century work.

The mid-19th century work is executed in Perpendicular Gothic style. The unbuttressed west tower rises in three stages with a chamfered plinth, offsets to each stage with moulded string courses, and a battlemented parapet with stone coping and corner pinnacles bearing globe finials. The south-east pinnacle is inscribed "RVD WS / HALLIDAY / 1836", the south-west pinnacle "RVD W S / H / 1836", and the north-west pinnacle "W R / BUILDR". The belfry has louvred round-arched openings. A 2-light window in the second stage to the west features dressed voussoirs and keystone with wooden Y-tracery and diamond leading. A boarded door to the north has a wooden lintel.

The south side of the nave has a rendered plinth and a pair of probably mid-19th century square-headed windows of three hollow-chamfered Tudor-arched lights with chamfered reveals, flat arches and returned hoodmoulds. A central late 19th century shallow-pointed arched entrance has a 19th century boarded door with wrought-iron strap hinges. The porch features a rendered plinth and plain barge boards with a round-arched entrance having a 19th century moulded stone hoodmould with scrolled stops. Above is a renewed slate sundial inscribed "TIS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD". The porch interior contains a stone floor, stone side benches and a plaster barrel vault.

The north aisle has a centre window of 2 trefoil-headed lights and outer windows of 2 four-centred arched lights, all diamond-leaded. The chancel has a diamond-leaded trefoil-headed lancet to the south set in a square-headed recess with returned hoodmould. The east window is 4-centred arched with 2 diamond-leaded lights and Y-tracery in deeply splayed moulded reveals with a hoodmould. The vestry contains a pair of 2-light wooden casements with wrought-iron bars.

The interior features plastered walls and a plastered barrel-vaulted nave roof. The 2-bay north aisle of 1846 comprises octagonal piers with chamfered plinths and moulded capitals supporting chamfered 4-centred arches, with a plastered barrel-vaulted aisle roof with moulded wooden wall plate. A mid-19th century round chancel arch has moulded front and rear edges, moulded imposts and small moulded corbels. The chancel roof features scissor-braced turned rafters, ashlar pieces and moulded wooden wall plates. Windows have segmental rear arches, with jambs stripped of plaster in the nave.

The fittings include a mid-19th century painted wooden reredos flanking the east window, comprising four panels with the Lord's Prayer and Creed in the lower two and the commandments in the upper two, all with Tudor-arched heads, a moulded plinth and cill string, and a moulded cornice carried up over the window. A 19th century wooden altar is flanked by large free-standing 20th century wooden candlesticks. Wooden dado panelling to the chancel, ramped to the east end, incorporates a well-carved medieval bench end depicting a swan with a crown, lettering above and a trefoil with shield below. 19th century choir stalls and trefoil-arched arcaded altar rails are present. A probable old rectangular stone piscina with chamfered drain rests on a 20th century wooden frame.

A fine chancel screen of circa 1700 features a panelled lower part with turned balusters above, chamfered square posts with scrolled stops, a top rail with carved egg and dart ornament, small turned urns above balusters and large urns above posts, and a wide open triangular pediment above decorated with carved acanthus modillions alternating with carved square paterae and egg and dart enrichment. 19th century pews and a matchboarded dado fill the nave and aisle. A 19th century carved wooden octagonal pulpit with carved stem and foliage panels stands with a reader's desk featuring a traceried front. A 19th century carved wooden lectern is present, along with a 19th century octagonal stone font with trefoil-headed panels to the step, moulded base, a bowl with carved quatrefoil panels, and a painted wooden cover with carved quatrefoil panels and pyramidal top with finial.

An old organ at the east end of the aisle is inscribed "CASSON'S PATENT / POSITIVE ORGAN CO. LTD / LONDON / OP. 127". A painted royal coat of arms of George IV appears on the west wall of the nave with the date 1837 at the corners of a wooden frame and a painted inscription "GUEIELMUS IV BRITT REX". Below the coat of arms is a carved wooden Prince of Wales feathers mounted on a board with motto and date of 10th March 1863. A pair of 19th century brass candlesticks are fixed to the north wall of the nave.

Monuments include a pair of painted 18th century wooden tablets on the north wall of the nave retaining original colour, gilding and marbling. The left-hand tablet is illegible, consisting of a lugged architrave with a pedimented top and cherub with scrolled brackets below. The right-hand tablet commemorates Christopher Slocombe Asheon (died 5 February 1781, aged 39 years) and features flanking fluted pilasters with cornices and globe finials above, resting on scrolled brackets, with cherubs around the top and a shaped base with shield. A stone tablet on the south wall of the nave commemorates John Fry of Wilsham (died 3 November 1762, aged 47 years) and features a painted shaped head with a cherub.

In 1832 the old chancel and tower still survived. Reverend W. S. Halliday began Glenthorne, his house nearby, in 1829 and undertook extensive work on the estate in the following years, including the virtual rebuilding of the church.