Church Of St John The Baptist

ST4354 AXBRIDGE THE SQUARE (north sidel

12/44 Church of St John The Baptist

9.2.61

GV I

Parish church. Whole of c1400, restored 1888 by J D Sedding. Coursed and squared rubble, freestone dressings, gabled lead roofs with cruciform finials. Nave and chancel with aisles, crossing tower with transepts, broad west porch incorporating 2 rooms, further porch to south. Elaborate tower with set-back buttresses rising to pinnacles, parapet around top stage pierced with quatrefoils. Stair turret, 2-light bell-chamber windows with a repeating blank window each side; on the east and west sides figures of St John and Henry VIII. Tower parapet repeats over the aisles and west porch. All windows of restored Perpendicular type, except the east windows of the aisles altered C17 to provide for monuments, east chancel window reputedly of l857. Stone panelled roof to south porch; to the nave a plaster ceiling dated 1636, ribbed with pendants the tower with a fan-vault; the aisle roofs with Perpendicular panelled lean-to's; C19 wagon roofs to the transepts and chancel. 4-bay arcades to the nave differentiated only by the leaf decoration on the south capitals. Identical arches leading to the chancel aisles and transcepts, some with leaf capitals, some with angles. Richly furnished; octagonal Perpendicular font; chandelier of 1730; some remains of wall painting; brass in north transept to Roger Harper and wife of 1493; C17 bier in south transept; painted C17 chest in south transept; many large wall monuments, particularly to Prowse family who have connections with Compton House(qv), that to south chancel aisle with a kneeling figure of Anne Prowse of 1668, in north chancel aisle William Prowse, depicted as a three-quarter figure in an oval niche of 1670; further fine monuments to Thomas Welsh of 1678, J Andrews of 1720, Johns Tuthil of 1716 and Thomas Prowse of 1767; further C17 chest in north aisle; small C17 reading desk; painting to south transept of Christ showing his wounds, probably C15 though much restored and over-painted; altar frontal to north aisle of 1720. Many further lesser well monuments of C18 and C19. C19 pews and choir stalls. Stained glass to east window. (Pevsner, Buildings of England, North Somerset and Bristol, 1958).

Listing NGR: ST4314854607