Church Of St John The Evangelist

CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST

A striking parish church built between 1858 and 1863 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, one of the most accomplished church architects of the High Victorian era. The chancel was reordered in 1891 by Henry Wilson for the firm of J.D. Sedding. The church was erected on the western edge of Taunton's town centre to serve the poor district of Tangier, funded by Reverend Frederick Smith of Holy Trinity Church, Taunton, at a cost of approximately £12,000, and consecrated on 13 April 1863. From its opening, the church operated without pew rents.

The exterior presents a rich Early English Gothic style composition, executed in a showcase of Somerset stones that create distinctive colour and textural effects. The walls are constructed in squared rubble of Westleigh stone with banded dressings of ochre Ham stone, Bath stone, and red Bishop's Lydeard sandstone. The steep tiled roofs feature diaper patterns in red on brown. The building sits close to the street and is dominated by a prominent steeple—an unusual feature positioned at the east end of the south aisle rather than the west—which stands 80 feet high and exhibits polychrome banded decoration. The tower possesses angle buttresses and carved diaper ornament on the bell stage, with two-light bell openings featuring plate tracery and striped voussoirs. The spire carries big lucarnes and figures of the apostles in tabernacles masking the broaches, with a further tier of small lucarnes higher up. As Nikolaus Pevsner noted, this steeple composition is "not at all in any local tradition". The aisles and west wall are heavily buttressed. Aisle windows are of two lights with an oculus in plate tracery. The south porch is furnished with three orders of columns. The east window comprises three even lancets with a foiled oculus in the gable above. The west end is well composed, featuring triple gables, a triple arcade framing the west door, grouped lancet windows arranged 2:3:2, with foiled oculi above in 1:3:1 formation.

The plan comprises a four-bay nave (said to be one bay shorter than originally intended) with north and south aisles, a north chapel, a two-bay chancel, and a south porch. Choir vestries were added at the north-east in 1888.

The interior proves surprisingly spacious, measuring 110 feet long by 56 feet wide. White plastered walls are dressed with Ham stone. The nave arcades feature broad arches of two-stepped profile carried on slim piers that alternate between cylindrical and clustered forms, the latter with red sandstone shafts and shaft rings. The capitals are richly crocketed with foliate decoration incorporating human and animal heads. Aisle windows have nook shafts. The chancel displays much shafting of Forest marble, and the steep arches of the organ loft possess very enriched soffits. Above the chancel is a panelled tunnel vault painted blue with stars on a cream ground over the altar, a scheme executed by Michael Torrens and Alan Rome in 1962. The nave and aisles feature close-set rafters with densely stencilled grounds. The chancel floor, dating from 1891, is paved in black and white marble.

Original fixtures and fittings are extensive and of high quality. A heavy pulpit of Ham Hill limestone features inset roundels and red Devonshire marble angle shafts. An octagonal font on Devonshire marble shafts with carved roundels dates to approximately 1863. The baptistery was re-cast between 1911 and 1913 by John Dudley Forsyth in Free Perpendicular style, with rails, panelling, and an elaborate oak font cover of Gothic spire form; Forsyth also signed two baptistery windows, one dating to 1914. Beneath the tower stands a superb Henry Willis organ of 1864, reckoned to be one of the finest instruments by this noted organ builder, housed in a painted patterned oak case. The north chapel contains a 15th-century Renaissance-style reredos with a triptych painting of the Crucifixion in a gilded and carved triple-arched frame.

The chancel reordering of 1891 introduced exceptional furnishings. Henry Wilson designed an exceptionally light and open wrought-iron screen with a large cross but no rood figures, featuring a gilded frieze of cut plate metal depicting animals and Noah's Ark beneath floriated cresting. Contemporaneous Free Late Gothic chancel stalls display rich naturalistic plant, bird, and animal carving, with bench ends showing Art Nouveau whiplash lines. Both screen and stalls were executed by Trask of Norton-sub-Hamdon, Sedding's favoured contractor (also employed at Axbridge Church, Somerset). J.D. Sedding, Wilson's master, may have designed some fittings but died before the scheme's execution. A High Altar frontal designed by Alan Rome in 1962, carved in timber and gilded by Burchardt (a pupil of Comper), completes the chancel furnishings. Original pine bench pews survive throughout the church, characterised by simple but well-shaped ends. Stained glass is limited but tellingly deployed: the richly coloured east and west windows are by Hardman & Powell (1863), while Clayton & Bell made the wheel window in the north chapel (1863). Red, black, and cream tiled floors occur throughout except in the chancel.

George Gilbert Scott (1811–78) began practice in the late 1830s and became the most successful church architect of his day. Often criticised for over-restoration of medieval buildings, his work was typically respectful, whilst his new churches possess a harmonious quality derived from late 13th- or early 14th-century architecture. Beyond church design, Scott created important secular buildings including the Albert Memorial and the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras. He was knighted in 1872. This church represents an extremely imposing example from the peak of his career, displaying his highly characteristic fusion of medieval forms with his own distinctive architectural approach.

Henry Wilson was a noted church designer regarded as among the leading Arts and Crafts epoch artists in ecclesiastical architecture.