Description

NEWBURY NEWTOWN ROAD

SU 4666SE SU 4766SW Church of St John
9/1 10/1 the Evangelist

GV II

Large parish church. 1955-7 by S E Dykes-Bower, in a neo-Romanesque style;
extended 1982-3 by R Gradidge in a similar style. Red brick with horizontal
bands of brick in different shades. Clay pantile roofs. Diamond, leaded
windows. Nave of 9 bays, north and south aisles. Sanctuary with ambulatory
behind, and with vestry on north and Lady Chapel on south. Baptistery on west
with entrance porch on south-west; gallery above baptistery with choir stairs
and organ. Spiral stairs to gallery and bell chambers, in separate chamber on
north-west. Later parish roan adjoining nave on north-west. South aisle: 9
bays. Circular windows, alternating plain recessed panels with corbelled
heads. Lean-to roof abutting nave. Nave, south side: 10 bays, 2-light
windows at gallery level, with semicircular heads and relieving arches with
vertical polychromatic brick infilling and brick mullions. Single light
windows on clerestory level. Moulded string course at junction with aisle
roof and at cill level of clerestory windows. Dentilled brick eaves.
Baptistery south side: large, central, recessed semicircular headed panel
with raised dark brick header, brick forming a diamond pattern at the upper
level, above a 2-light window in lower section. Two, large 3-stage buttresses
each side of centre section terminating in promontory at bottom with large
arched head and recessed flank walls to oak planked doors. Corbelled eaves to
transverse gabled roof rising above nave. Baptistery west end: 3 bays.
Recessed Semicircular headed panels forming a blank arcade with dark grey
projecting header bricks above 2-light windows with segmental heads. Below
this are circular windows in deeply recessed openings with a central stone
inscription panel which reads:- AMDG
This stone was laid by
Her Royal Highness
PRINCESS MARGARET
13 April 1955.

On the left is a small planked door with semicircular head and on the right a
small window deeply recessed within a semicircular headed opening. Baptistery
north side: Similar to south side but with 3 small rectangular stair windows,
replacing the porch. Sanctuary east end: parapet to gabled roof. On the
left a single storey semi-octagonal projection to the Lady Chapel and on the
right a similar projection to the vestry. 5 bays centre section to sanctuary.
Recessed brick panels with 3 circular windows to ambulatory; small door on
right. 3-stage buttresses between recessed panels, rising to impost level of
top windows which are 2-light with pointed heads, within semicircular beaded
openings. 3 semicircular headed windows above ambulatory level.
Lady Chapel, south side: Two, 2-light windows with segmental heads of tile
slips. Wooden cross in centre with carved wooden figure of Christ. Steeply
pitched lean-to-roof to south wall of sanctuary; which has two large, 2-light
windows with pointed heads in recessed panels with tile-slip semicircular
heads and tile slip spandrels, and brick quoins. Coped gable to gabled roof
rising above nave level.

Interior: brick throughout. 9 bay arcades with semicircular arches to
aisles. Square piers with chamfered edges with mmlded stone bases and
capitals. Semicircular brick shafts springing alternately from bases of
piers, and abacus level of pier heads, and rising to a moulded stone corbelled
head which carries a shaped wooden bracket to concealed roof trusses.
Ceilings to nave and sanctuary are painted in geometrical designs on wooden
boards. Brick altar with painted Tester over, depicting the Dove of Peace,
with tongues of fire denoting the Holy spirit. Stained windows in the
sanctuary by A E Buss of Goddard and Gibbs. The church replaces an earlier
church by W Butterfield, which was destroyed by bombs during an air raid on
February 10, 1943.

BOE (Berkshire) p,181.

Listing NGR: SU4701166484

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St John the Evangelist Church, Newbury at Wikipedia
• St John the Evangelist Church, Newbury official website
• Wikidata Q7593804

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)