Church of St John the Baptist

Details

SU 02 NE BISHOPSTONE BISHOPSTONE VILLAGE (east side) Church of St John the Baptist 5/38 23.3.60

GV I Anglican parish church. C13, C14, C15, restored 1836 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and 1858 by T.H. Wyatt. Rubble stone with flint and dressed limestone, tiled roof with hip to west. Aisle-less cruciform church with south porch and north vestry. Gabled 2-storey porch, a C19 rebuild, with double chamfered doorway and cusped lancets to side walls, upper floor has cusped lancets flanking image niche, diagonal buttresses, sundial. South side of nave has 3-light Perpendicular window either side of porch, parapet with saddleback coping. South transept has 3-light C14 reticulated tracery window with multifoil over to south side, diagonal buttresses, parapet with quatrefoils, lean-to 2-bay open arcaded burial chamber with ribbed vault and chest tomb within, stone roof and heavy buttresses, possibly to patron, west and east side of transept have two tall 2-light reticulated tracery windows. Chancel has two large C14 windows to north and south sides, pointed priest's door has crocketed aedicule with compressed rib vault, quatrefoil frieze to parapet, east end has 4-light ogee-headed window with flowing tracery and multifoil in bow-sided triangle over. North-east angle of chancel has polygonal 3-stage stair turret with cusped lancets. C14 vestry/sacristry on north side of chancel has cusped lancet and ogee quatrefoil frieze to shallow-pitched roof. North transept has 2-light C14 windows to east and west sides, buttresses carried up to parapet, 3-light window with reticulated tracery to north. North side of nave has two 3-light Perpendicular window either side of moulded pointed doorway. West end has diagonal buttresses, Tudor-arched doorway with ribbed door, 3-light C14 window over. Two-stage crossing tower has 2-light louvred Perpendicular windows to each side, string course and battlemented parapet. Interior: Porch contains newel stone stairs to upper room, C14 pointed arched doorway with double studded doors, stoup to right. Nave has original 4-bay ribbed ceiling with moulded soffits, stone floors, two stone corbels on east wall possibly from former rood loft. Crossing with double chamfered pointed arches with broach stops, flat ceiling on corbels. Fine south transept has 2-bay tierceron vaulted ceiling, moulded string course carried over windows, crocketed piscina canopy on east wall, possibly-by Pugin, south wall has crocketed niche and fine gothic-style canopied monument by Pugin, to Rev George Montgomery, died 1842; a benefaction tablet on north wall records Montgomery's gift for church restoration, the date 1836 recorded in head of C12 former window facing crossing. North transept has arched ribbed roof with carved bosses, ogee niche on north wall, fine segmental-arched niche with cusping and ballflowers on north wall, containing two coffin lids. Two-bay chancel has fine rib-vaulted tierceron roof, ornate 3-seat sedilia with crocketed pinnacles, aumbry and piscina flank reredos of reset panelling. Image niches flanking east window, north wall has tryptych painting. Some especially fine woodwork, possibly imported from Spain and elsewhere; Late Medieval pulpit with reset carved panels of a woman, a bishop and a relief of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, similar reset panelling to reading desk, good choir stalls with panels and good C19 pews in north transept. C19 octagonal stone font with conical cover and north side of nave. Royal Arms of George III on east wall of nave. Good stained glass in east window dedicated to Montgomerys and Earl and Countess of Pembroke, dated 1836, designed by Pugin and made by Wailes. Original Medieval glass said to be in Sacristry. Monuments: relief-carved demi-figure of unidentified man, died 1612, in north transept, relief-carved coat of arms of Vaughan family to right. C18 and C19 tablets include a stone tablet over-south doorway to Michael Throope died 1737 and tablet over north door to William Rowden, died 1770. An important and large village church, a former living of the Bishops of Winchester. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, 1975)

Listing NGR: SU0843726526

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

320624

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, (1975)

End of official list entry

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