Description

SW 63 SW BREAGE GODOLPHIN CROSS

4/67 Church of Saint John the Baptist
entrance, gate piers, gates and
flanking walls
GV II

Parish church of former parish of Godolphin. 1850. Possibly designed by William
White. Granite rubble walls with dressed granite quoins, doorways, windows and
weatherings. Steep, scantle, slate roofs with coped gable ends, the nave roof
continued down with lower pitch over the aisles, roof at lower level over chancel. Double bellcote over west gable. Nearly symmetrical plan except for entrance with porch towards west end of north wall, arcades between nave-length arcades and chancel projecting at middle east end, linked to nave by chancel arch. Early English style. North 3:1 bay entrance front; lancet to each of first 3 bays with weathered buttreses between; gable-ended porch at right hand bay with moulded pointed doorway in gable end with open square grid doors. South wall has 4 bays like the window bays of the north wall. West end, facing road, has tall central gable surmounted by integral gabled bellcote with weathered rising from the verge copings and with 2 bells in the middle of the gable end is a tall 2 light window of paired lancets with foiled tracery under pointed arch with hoodmould; a buttress on either side to restrain the arcades and paired lancets to each of the aisles. Similar windows at the east end of the aisles. The chancel has a 3 light window with trefoil-headed lights to the middle of the east
gable; paired lancet window to the north wall and a shoulded, arched priests doorway to the south wall. All the windows have diamond leaded panes.
Interior : lofty nave with arched and scissor braced roof structure over the straight bracing springing from corbels in the arcade spandrels of the 4 bay pointed arcades with moulded arches carried on round piers with moulded capitals. Painted texts to the architraves. Holy water stoup beside the north doorway in the porch.
Fittings simple but mostly original : round funnel shaped granite font on moulded
base carried on rectangular plinth; pitch pine pews with ends resembling andirons and a freestone octagonal pulpit carried on 4 engaged shafts, donated by the parishioners in 1903 in memory of the Rev. W.T. Grear.
The entrance gateway has square-on-plan granite monolith gate piers, round-headed to each side. Wrought iron gates with scrolled central features and top rails. Between the gate piers is a round-arched iron overthrow with scrolled lamp holder. At either side of the gateway the wall, locally known as a hedge is cyma shaped on plan and of roughly; squared coarsed vertically set granite.
This church is a delightfully simple building but the design incorporates the
essential elements of ecclesiastical style considered important for an Anglican
church in the mid C19.

Listing NGR: SW6093231280

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26435033

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)