Description

LOWER SHUCKBURGH SP46SE 2/46 Church of St. John the Baptist

GV II

Church. 1864 by John Croft. Squared coursed ironstone, limestone quoins, dressings and tracery, and some lias. Old-tile roofs have moulded coped gable parapets. Aisled cruciform plan with south-west porch tower. Highly idiosyncratic High Victorian Gothic style. 2-bay chancel, 3-bay nave. Splayed plinth and cornice throughout. Lias bands throughout; windows have lias voussoirs stepped down and continued as bands. Chancel has diagonal buttresses combined with angle buttresses, merging into angle piers with moulded cornices and pinnacles. East window is a triplet of stepped lancets with unusual chamfered and notched tracery of no definite style. Buttress below. Single sharp north and south lancets. North side has 2 weatherboarded gablets; south side has stone gablet with blind trefoil. North and south projections have buttresses rising to pinnacles. North projection has catslide roof and half-dormer with lancet and scooped-out shaped gable with finial. Small trefoil to east. South projection has window of 3 graduated lancets and star. Gable has star finial. East window has arch only, with tracery containing a mouchette wheel. North and south transepts have flanking buttresses, of 2 offsets to north. Windows of triple stepped lancets and piercings. Small trefoiled circle opening above. Gables have moulded kneelers and openwork cross finials. Octagonal south-west porch tower of 2 stages. Angle buttresses. Moulded string course. South portal has large gable with finial on chamfered and notched piers. Chamfered arches. Recessed plank door with elaborately scrolled hinges. Left and right sides have lancets and relieving arches. Projecting sills. Bell stage has paired bar stop-chamfered and shaped lancets. Arcaded cornice. Gable to each face has stepped lancets and fleur-de-lys finial. Tower gables, window relieving arches and portal gable faced with purple chippings. Spire with roll-moulded ribs has small quatrefoil and trefoil openings. Weather vane. Outer south aisle window of 4 lancets. 2-bay aisle has angle arid single south buttresses. 2-light windows of unusual notched and bar stop-chamfered tracery, the eastern with sexfoil, the western with quatrefoils. Aisles have run-out chamfered trefoiled west lancets. Continuous roofs from nave. West front has narthex of contrasting orange stone between 2 large buttresses of 2 offsets with gablet finials. Large wide gable with star finial. Large chamfered arch. Within it are 2 entirely separate chamfered arched doorways, and cusped lozenge opening. Wrought iron gates. Polychromatic brick vaults. Shouldered doorways have plank doors with elaborately scrolled hinges. 5 cusped elliptical openings to left and right and behind gable. Rose window. Interior: polychromatic, with plastered walls and piers, arches and bands of red terracotta with white joints, limestone and blue brick. Notched saw-toothed arches to all openings throughout. Chancel has blind arcading flanking windows. Unglazed north triple lancet window opening to vestry. South arch to organ chamber. Western half-bay has trefoiled arches with segmental-pointed relieving arches to north and south. 2 bays of quadripartite rib vaulting with limestone ribs and carved bosses, and terracotta coffering of various patterns. Wide chancel arch with limestone responds. Nave has 3-bay arcades of diagonally-set chamfered square piers with simply-moulded capitals. Inner order of limestone. Unusual hammer-beam roof has 2 hammer-beam trusses with applied decoration and saw-toothed paired collars to each bay, with subsidiary rafters arid collars, and purlins. Trefoiled openwork above wallplate. Transepts have recesses below windows. Hammer-beam roofs with shaped braces. Narrow aisles. 2-bay arcade to outer south aisle. South and outer aisles have arches to entrance vestibule. Vestibule has octagonal vault with notched limestone ribs and patterned terracotta coffering, and trap door. Fittings: C13 tapering cylindrical font has simple arcading. Reredos has intersecting arcading. Pulpit, pews and benches with carved ends, and altar rails, all of 1864. A complete and highly original example of High Victorian 'rogue architecture'. (V.C.H.: Warwickshire: Vol. VI, pp.218-218. Buildings of England: Warwickshire: p.345)

Listing NGR: SP4892662669

External Links

• Wikidata Q26638213

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Recommended Books

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
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  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014