Description

HENLEY-IN-ARDEN

SP1566 HIGH STREET
652-1/10/106 (East side)
05/04/67 Church of St John the Baptist
including wall to Guildhall

GV I

Church. c1450 with slightly later north aisle and earlier west
tower; restored 1856 and 1900.
MATERIALS: coursed dressed lias and coursed lias rubble with
ashlar dressings; old tile roof.
PLAN: single-vessel chancel and 4-bay nave; west tower and
north aisle.
EXTERIOR: coped gables with crosses. Chancel has 5-light east
window with renewed Perpendicular tracery and hoodmould with
head stops; diagonal buttresses.
Small C19 gabled vestry to north has tile roof and 2-light
straight-headed window.
North aisle has flying buttress to west end, cornice, parapet
and coped gable; 3-light windows with no hoods, that to east
with renewed tracery.
Nave south elevation has deep plinth, off-set buttresses and
diagonal buttresses, and plain cornice; 3-light windows with
renewed tracery and foliated hood stops.
West end has shallow-gabled porch with plinth, panelled
diagonal buttresses and cornice with crenellated parapet;
entrance has continuous mouldings and depressed arch (other
entrances similar) and hood with beast stops, crockets and
finials, C20 paired battened doors; inner entrance has king
and queen headstops, crockets and paired 9-fielded-panel
doors; south side of porch has cusped panelling flanking
2-light straight-headed window. Renewed 4-light west window
has hood with woman and green man stops, crockets and fleuron.
3-stage west tower has plinth and diagonal buttresses ending
in bases to removed pinnacles; 2-light west window.
Triple-chamfered cusped light to south and west, with
continuous hoodmould; third stage has similar straight-headed
lights; top stage has 2-light transomed bell-openings, the
lower lights with stone infill, upper ones louvred; south side
has stair lights and lozenge-face clock; top cornice and C19
or C20 crenellated parapet.
INTERIOR: nave and chancel has roof with arch-braced cambered
tie beams on angel corbels, queen struts to arch-braced
cambered collars, wind braces and coupled and ashlared common
rafters; north arcade has wide shallow 4-centred arches on
tall octagonal piers, east respond and west corbel in form of
winged beast (cf Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon); chancel
north door.
South and east windows have head stops with large and
elaborate headgear. Aisle has stop-chamfered members to roof;
east window over entrance; 2 north windows with stops similar
to arcade corbel, and north door set inside-out;
double-chamfered tower arch with C19 screen.
FITTINGS: C20 panelling to sanctuary, simple stalls and timber
rail; early C16 pulpit with renewed stone base, panels with
blind tracery over linen-fold with renewed brattished cornice;
plain octagonal font with shallow C17 or C18 bowl; mostly C19
fittings.
MONUMENTS: marble wall tablet to Simon Kempson, d.1719, and
Margaret, d.1699; panel with apron, side pilasters ending in
scrolls and crest with armorial bearing. 2 early C18 floor
slabs, one to Robert Clayton with armorial bearing. Brass
First World War memorial lists causes of death.
STAINED GLASS: 1879 east window; 1865 aisle east window with
figure of Hope set in grisaille; 1882 west window with
pictorial Nativity; south windows of c1856 with decorative
roundels set in grisaille.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: wall connecting north-west angle of tower
with the Guildhall (qv) has 4-centred entrance with plank
door.
HISTORY: believed to have Hanoverian Royal Arms to tower. The
church built as a chapel of ease to the parish church at
Wooton Wawen, and was first mentioned in 1367; the north aisle
was used by the Guild of the Holy Trinity, St John the
Evangelist and St John the Baptist, first mentioned in 1408.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: Harmondsworth:
1966-: 309-10; Shell Guides: Hickman D: Warwickshire: London:
1979-: 112; Victoria County History: Styles P: Victoria
History of the County of Warwickshire: 1945-: 210-11).

Listing NGR: SP1511366017

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 29 August 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17528450

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)