Church Of St John The Baptist

TQ 4109 NW LEWES SOUTHOVER HIGH STREET 14/373 (south side) Southover 25.2.52 Church of St John the Baptist

GV I

Hospitium, now church. Late C11 or early C12, C14, 1714-38, 1847, 1885. Flint walling on nave to north with stone dressings and buttresses, chequer stone and flint to south, as is north side of chancel. Red and blue brick chequer to lower stage of tower with red brick above and chequer battlements. Rubble stone diagonal buttresses with dressed stone dressings. Plain tiled roofs. Octagonal cupola to tower with dome, finial and shark weathervane. Nave of five bays to north with four bay aisle to south. North windows C14, much renewed in 1885; south aisle windows C15, also renewed. Interior: Tower arch, probably C14. South aisle arcade of four piers. late Cll or early C12. Drum-piers with unmoulded arches, probably renewed. Crown-post collar-purlin nave roof of C15 with downward braces from crown-posts to tie-beams. Also ashlar-pieces and braces from rafters to collars. Chancel of two bays, that to west C15, much rebuilt, that to east 1885, an identical copy. Curvilinear east window with C20 stained glass. Two-bay wagon roof with cranked principals. Chapel of William de Warenne and Gundrada, his wife, at east end of south aisle. 1845 by J.L. Parsons of Lewes in Neo-Norman style, advised by Benjamin Ferrey. Groin-vaulted with giant order in corners of chapel. Interlaced side wall arcading with dog- tooth string-course over. Round-arched windows with chevron ornament and order of columns with decorated capitals. Pair of similar wall openings to south with the two lead cists of William and Gundrada. Central slab to Gundrada, possibly of Tourmi marble with palmettes either side of a middle staff. Stained glass: north windows by Kempe, 1882-91. Organ: 1904 with stone substructure in early Perpendicular style.

W.H. Godfrey, The Official Guide to Lewes, 1933, revised 1977, 43-44. B.O.E., Sussex, 1965, 552-553.

Listing NGR: TQ4126409649