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

• 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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
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  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)