Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist

Church with medieval origins. The tower was rebuilt in 1617. The main body of the church was rebuilt from 1753 onwards by Thomas Prowse of Wicken Park at his own expense, with the assistance of John Sanderson, and was completed in 1767 after Prowse's death. The building was later altered and enlarged by Edward Swinfen Harris between 1874 and 1890. The church is constructed in limestone ashlar with lead roofs.

The plan comprises a chancel, south chapel, vestry, aisled nave, south porch and west tower. The chancel contains a 5-light east window with a 4-centred head and 2-light windows to north and south, all with 19th-century Perpendicular-style tracery and hood moulds. A large 19th-century gabled vestry and organ chamber projects to the north, with a stone lateral stack to its east side featuring an octagonal stone flue that serves a boiler-house at basement level. The vestry has a north door and a 3-light window above with a hood mould. The 19th-century south chapel has a lancet window to the east and a 3-light window to the south with Perpendicular tracery.

The nave and aisles are contained under one roof and have 2-light windows to north and south with 19th-century Decorated-style tracery. The south porch contains a 6-panel double-leaf door dated 1839 with a Tudor-arched doorway and hood mould; a datestone above the door sits in a plain stone-coped parapet. A blocked 1-light window with hood moulds survives at the west end of the aisles.

The 4-stage tower has a chamfered round-arched west door with a hood mould, above which is a 4-light window with 19th-century Perpendicular-style tracery and hood mould. 1-light windows with straight heads and cut spandrels appear to the intermediate stages, each with a hood mould. A coat of arms in a moulded stone surround sits below a lower window to the south; these arms probably belonged to Lord Spencer of Wormleighton, at whose expense the tower was rebuilt. The bell-chamber has coupled pointed-arched openings with hood moulds. The tower is buttressed with offset diagonal and angle buttresses, and carries a plain stone-coped parapet with gargoyles to the angles. Corner pinnacles have been dismantled. The body of the church has moulded stone eaves.

The interior is designed as a hall church with narrow aisles of the same height as the nave. The 3-bay arcades feature clustered shafts of quatrefoil section on high octagonal bases, which were positioned to clear former box pews. The piers have two shaft-bands and capitals in later 13th-century French style with shallow foliage and square abaci with hollows at the angles. The nave is covered by a slightly pointed plaster barrel vault with penetrations and rosettes from which candelabra formerly hung. The aisles are groin-vaulted, with aisle vaults springing from foliage corbels; similar corbels appear at either end of the arcades. A double-chamfered tower arch divides the nave from the tower space. The chancel arch has responds with clustered shafts and foliage capitals, surmounted by a moulded 4-centred arch.

A marble plaque on the north wall opposite the south door is inscribed: "This Church was designed / and built by / THOMAS PROWSE Esq / in the Year 1758 / And finished after his Death." The chancel features a fan vault of papier mâché with pierced pendant bosses.

The font comprises a square bowl of Purbeck marble with three shallow blank round-headed arches to each side, mounted on an octagonal stem with octagonal shafts to each corner. The reredos is a late 19th-century work by E. Swinfen Harris, constructed of oak with diptych panel paintings depicting the Annunciation and Nativity. Late 19th- and early 20th-century stained glass appears in the chancel, south chapel, north aisle and west window; the glass in the chancel to the north dates to 1921 and is by Eleanor Brickdale.

Monuments include a brass to Thomas House, died 1633. A wall monument to Margaret Shirte, died 1634, bears a Latin inscription on a brass plate within a moulded stone surround. A wall monument to John Sharp, died 1726, features two seated putti holding a cartouche of arms against a slate obelisk background with an inscription on the apron flanked by a skull and cross-bones. A similar wall monument to John Hosier Sharp, died 1734, son of John Sharp, shows an urn against an obelisk background. Two marble wall monuments flank the tower arch, both of similar size. The one to the right has a pedimented top with a cherub holding a down-turned torch and a bow-fronted inscription panel below, commemorating Anna Maria Sharp, died 1747, widow of John Sharp. The one to the left commemorates Charles Hosier, died 1750, and his wife Mary, died 1724, parents of Anna Maria Sharp; this monument is by Sir Henry Cheere and features an open pediment, obelisk background and garlanded urn. It was erected in 1758 at the rebuilding of the church by Thomas Prowse and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Anna Maria Sharp and granddaughter of Charles and Mary Hosier. A wall monument to Elizabeth Sharp, died 1810, is signed by J. Bacon Jun. and displays a draped urn against a black marble background with a weeping willow and a bas-relief showing Sorrow and Charity. Early 19th-century wall monuments commemorate Emily Elizabeth Fitzroy, died 1827; Lord Charles Fitzroy, died 1829; and Reverend Henry Quartley, this last signed by P. Rouw, sculptor of Portland Road, London.