Description

LLANWARNE CP -
SO 52 NW

3/43 Church of St John
the Baptist

GV II*

Ruins of former parish church. Mainly C13 and C14 with later north
chapel, south porch and chancel. Coursed sandstone rubble and sandstone
ashlar, roofless except for stone slate coverings to tower. Four-bay
nave, two-bay chancel, west tower, south nave aisle, north chapel to
nave and south porch. Tower is late C14 or early C15; embattled and of
three stages with rectangular newel projection to east end of north
side with loops to west face, diagonal buttresses to north-west and south-
west, stages divided by string courses; the first stage below the lowest
string is constructed of thinly coursed rubble, has a segmentally-headed
door on the south side and a chamfered loop with a central iron bar to
the west face; the second stage is ashlar with a single lancet in the
centre of the south and west sides; the top stage has square-headed tre-
foiled and ogeed paired lights to bell-chamber on north, south and west
sides with a single light of the same design on the east side; the string
above dividing the top stage from the embattled parapet has two projecting
waterspouts to the north, south and west faces (the west one on the south
side is missing); the roof of the newel is pyramidal. Nave has two
windows each of two lights with Y-tracery on the north wall west of the
north chapel and to their west, beyond a dislodged buttress, a large
window with a round, possibly C18, head. North chapel has a re-set 2-
light window with Y-tracery in its north wall and a chamfered lancet in
the east wall. Chancel has a 2-centred east window formerly of two lights
with a later label and stops above; the east window of the south wall is
round headed, again perhaps C18, the west window beyond a low priests'
doorway with a 2-centred head, has two lights with ogee heads and sexfoil
tracery above. South aisle has at the east end a large 3-light window
with trefoil heads to each light and ogeed quatrefoil tracery above; the
three matching windows in the south wall and at the west end are similar
but of two lights like the westernmost window of the chancel. South porch
is early C17 with a round-headed outer arch and kneelers to the south verges;
the inner arch, above the former south door, is also C17 with a depressed
elliptical head and corbels, noted as Ionic brackets in RCHM. Interior
has four-bay arcade separating the nave from the south aisle with octagonal
columns and responds carrying round arches with double chamfers. Nave
floor has been raised so that a chamfered 2-centred doorway into the tower
is half buried, similarly the large 2-centred chamfered arch to the north
chapel now springs from about two feet above ground level. Chancel has
piscina with inner and outer centred heads and square drain, interior of
priest's doorway has shouldered jambs rising to a square head, several
illegible floor slabs and a brick chest tomb with stone hipped capping for
Watson Joseph Thornton, Rector, died 1855. South aisle has on the east
wall an illegible early C19 wall monument and on the south wall, near the
junction with the east wall, an early C17 wall monument framed by Ionic
columns and strapwork; on the adjacent south window cill is a tapered slab
with intersecting geometrical pattern. The church was abandoned in 1864 for
the new Christchurch (qv) because of the flooding of The Gamber, a nearby
brook. (Information in the churchyard; RCHM Vol I, p 177-8).

Listing NGR: SO5061228222

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17539073

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990