Description

CRAMLINGTON A 1171 NZ 27 SE (North side, off) 7/55 Church of St. John the Baptist, Annitsford II Roman Catholic Church, 1906 by Parxour. Snecked stone with flush ashlar bands and dressings; Welsh slate roof with red tile cresting. 6-bay aisled nave with south-west porch and north-west baptistery; 3-bay aisled chancel with canted apse within ambulatory. French Gothic style. Chamfered plinth, buttresses with stepped coping. Shouldered doorways to south porch, in projection to east and at east of ambulatory. Aisle and baptistery windows mostly of 2 shoulder- arched lights. Lofty west end shows 2 tall lancets with buttress between and vesica over; large moulded finial cross. Clerestorey of quatrefoiled circles, with cinquefoiled circle on east above ambulatory, flanked by pointed lights with cusped vesicas above. Nave/chancel division marked by octagonal pinnacles springing from aisles and clerestorey walls. Baptistery has steep pyramidal roof with wrought-iron finial cross; similar finial to apse. Bellcote with finial cross above east door of ambulatory.

Interior: Arcade arches narrow and steeply pointed, expecially in chancel. High arch-braced timber roof on corbelled shafts; chancel arch is simply a more elaborate stone truss on triple shafts. Panelled sanctuary. Carved screens in chancel arcade. Tall carved reredos with 6 painted panels of saints and central figure of Christ in niche under pinnacle. Similar but smaller carved reredos in north Lady Chapel. Carved pulpit with figures of saints in pinnacled niches. Good wrought-iron baptistery rail.

The church is said to be modelled on Ostend Cathedral, which the architect and Father Chapman visited; it was built on a concrete raft to counteract mining subsidence. Both wood and craftsmen were brought over from Belgium.

Listing NGR: NZ2700674890

External Links

• Wikidata Q26293276

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