Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 20/10/2016

SO8454SW
620-1/19/585

WORCESTER
ST JOHNS (North West side)
CHURCH OF ST JOHN

(Formerly listed as CHURCH OF ST JOHN, ST JOHN'S)

22/05/54

GV
II*
Church. Late C12, early C14 chancel aracade and south chapel; C15 south chancel arcade, chancel arch and west tower (1481); north aisle rebuilt and south porch of 1841 by Parsons, to house interior gallery; east end extended and north chapel with vestries built 1884 by Ewan Christian. Red sandstone with plain tile roofs.

PLAN: 3-bay nave with north and south aisles, the latter extended by a chapel attached to the chancel.

EXTERIOR: Offset buttresses throughout. East gable has 5-light Perpendicular-style window; south chancel wall has similar 2-light windows flanking pointed arched doorway; similar window to north. North chapel: east wall has rose window above 2 trefoiled lancets. South chapel has C15 flat-arched 3-light east window and doorway with pointed chamfered arch west of 2-light Decorated windows. This is continued as south aisle, refenestrated with gables over each of the 3 bays in the C15: two C15-light windows with panel tracery east of narrower bay to west which has 3-light window and blocked C15 doorway. North aisle has 4 tall transomed Decorated-style windows in the north wall and a rose window to the west end. Projecting porch has diagonally offset buttresses flanking 4-light flat-arched window with segmental-arched heads and sunk spandrels. Tower of 3 stages has recessed west window - similar to All Saints (qv) - 2-light windows to upper stages and battlemented parapet with pinnacles around a pyramid roof with fleche (which replaced a spire destroyed in the Civil War).

INTERIOR: nave arches, rebuilt in 1841, rest on late C12 piers with multi-scalloped capitals and square abaci. Early C14 south chancel arcade with continuous wave moulding; chamfered arches to C15 chancel arch and double-chamfered arches to south arcade, with a squint set into pier adjacent to arch. Mid/late C19 open timber roofs, except C15 carpentry in south arcade which has slight timbers dividing arched plastered vault of E bay into panels; two arch-braced trusses exposed in S chapel. Door from S porch into vestibule which has spiral stair with wrought iron balustrade and panelled dado. North chapel framed by two 2-bay arcades.

FITTINGS: gallery by Parsons; Perpendicular-style pulpit and choir stalls, the latter with openwork Perpendicular-style tracery to book rests, by Christian; oak reredos also by Christian, forming centrepiece to ornate dado with Perpendicular-style panelling, brass communion rail; C17 commuinion rail. North chapel has Perpendicular-style organ case and screen by Christian.

MONUMENTS: fine series of late C17 to C19 tablets, including Bearoque memorial to Abel Gower, d 1669, with female allegorical figures set between twisted columns surmounted by open pediment with putti. Unusual memorial in S porch to John Garmston Hopkins, d1871, with a photograph of the dead boy set into the stone.

STAINED GLASS: small fragments of medieval stained glass in the chancel side windows; E window of 1884 and N aisle window of 1901 (to Albert Buck) by Clayton and Bell; E window in S chapel of 1889 by Burlison and Grylls; S window of S chapel of 1889 by Lavers, Baraud and Westlake; aisle window of 1922 showing the Good Shepherd by Archibald Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild.

HISTORICAL NOTE: granted to the monks of Worcester Priory in the C12.

(Victoria County History: London: 501-510; Bridges, T: Churches of Worcestershire: Worcester: 2000).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548203

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

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)