Description

SK 46 NE
7/19

PARISH OF AULT HUCKNALL
HODMIRE LANE (north side)
Church of St John the Baptist

08.07.66

GV
I
Parish church. C11, C14, C15. Restored 1885-88 by William Butterfield. Coursed rubble sandstone with sandstone dressings and quoins. Welsh-slate roof with stone coped gables. Chamfered plinth and moulded embattled parapets. Nave and aisles, south porch, crossing tower, chancel with south chapel and north vestry.

The lean-to south aisle has an embattled parapet with one crocketted finial. Four bays divided by buttresses with three set-offs. Flat-arched west window of four round-arched lights. Deep gabled porch has battlemented parapet with crocketted pinnacles. Diagonal buttresses. Moulded four-centred arched entrance. To the right are three flat-arched windows of four round-arched lights. Plainly chamfered four-centred arched priests doorway. The chancel chapel continues similar but lower, and has one similar window. Angle buttresses with a crocketted pinnacle. Similar window to the gabled east elevation. The main east window is of three lights with bar tracery.

C19 lean-to north vestry with plain mullioned windows. The tower has flat-arched two-light recessed and chamfered mullion bell-openings in each direction. To the north is an external flight of stone steps, ascending to a doorway with segmental pointed arch and rectangular window above. Lean-to north aisle has a small rectangular window and two pairs of trefoiled lancets dating from the C19 restoration. Norman lancet to the west, its round-arched head with zigzag decoration. Clerestory has two small two-light recessed and chamfered mullion windows. Blocked C11 west doorway has an incised lintel with a scene of St George and the Dragon. The tympanum above is incised with a centaur (which may be St Margaret emerging from the body of the devil) on the left, and the lamb and cross on the right. The interior of the porch has a pointed tunnel vault on four chamfered ribs, and stone seats. Plain four-centred arched doorway and pair of C19 doors.

INTERIOR: two-bay C11 north arcade of plain unmoulded round arches and with chamfered impost bands. South arcade of two plus one bays. The two bays have double-chamfered arches on a central octagonal pier with bell capital, the responds on corbels. Further arch to the east is similar and with moulded corbels on semi-octagonal responds. Depressed round-arched east tower arch with re-assembled chevron and beakhead. Double-chamfered arch to the south east chapel, its outer order dying into the imposts, the inner order on corbels. Low doorway-like chancel arch, plain and round-arched. Double-chamfered arch from the tower space to the chapel, the inner order on corbels. Chancel decoration by Butterfield. Tiled sanctuary, altar rails with bold cusped circular motifs. Stone reredos, tripartite, with coloured marbles and Hopton Wood stone centre panel. Pillar piscina on a circular colonette.

Monument in the chapel to Anne Keighley, wife of the first Earl of Devonshire, dated 1627. Below the window. Big base with inscription and exquisite foliage decoration. Cornice and a top like a hipped roof. On corbels rising from below the cornice, five free-standing allegorical figures. On the floor in front of the monument is a black slab inscribed to Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher, a protege of the Cavendishes, who died at Hardwick in 1679. Aumbry recess.

Medieval stained glass dated 1527 in the chapel east window, depicting the Crucifixion. Plain robust pews, pulpit, choir stalls, readers desk etc., probably by Butterfield. Screen between the south aisle and chapel, of intersecting round arches. Wooden eagle lectern.

C14 nave roof, with big tie beams and coarse trefoil tracery above. Sandstone and Hopton Wood stone font, given in 1887 and by Butterfield, with inlaid circular motifs. Next to it is a plain circular font bowl. At the west end of the nave are two benefaction boards. In the south aisle is a painted coat of arms and charity board. Two C18 monuments in the north aisle, one a cartouche with date of death 1703. In the aisle several C19 stained glass windows, and one in the north aisle of 1933 by HHB of Nottingham.

Listing NGR: SK4674165233

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St John the Baptist, Ault Hucknall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17530701

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy