Description

596/6/310 DRAKE ROAD
01-FEB-72 CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

II
1835-7 by R G Wetton. South vestry and some furnishings are late C19. The windows were re-glazed in the early C20.

MATERIALS: Coursed stone rubble with ashlar dressings, buttresses and turrets. Roof concealed by parapet.

PLAN: Wide six bay nave with projecting west full-height porch with two turrets, small polygonal chancel and internal western gallery.

EXTERIOR: Pre-Ecclesiological Gothic style. The west end is gable-fronted with a central projecting bay forming a full-height porch, flanked by slender octagonal turrets of three stages with crenellated parapets. There is a central tall lancet window with drip-moulding and moulded corbels and an arched doorcase below. The flanking windows are smaller lancets and there is a smaller arched doorcase underneath the south window and a similar doorcase in the north return to the porch. The north and south sides have six tall lancets with drip-moulding and corbels, divided by buttresses. The windows are subdivided vertically to provide two tiers and have early C20 frosted glass with marginal glazing. The south side has a small later vestry at the eastern end in matching style. The east end has a central polygonal apse with window of triple lancets and offset buttresses. There are smaller lancet windows on each side.

INTERIOR: The nave ceiling is flat and coffered, supported by iron girders of flat profile, ending in curved brackets on stone corbels. The west gallery is supported on two clustered columns and two half-columns. There is a large deep moulded chancel arch approached up two splayed steps.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Box pews survive to most of the nave. The 1896 wooden pulpit has trefoil-headed blank arcading , a flat canopy and is unusually set against the east wall to the north of the chancel arch. There is a small late C19 octagonal stone font. The south wall has an impressive monument to the Rev. William Carus-Wilson d.1861 by S Westmacottm featuring a solider with rifle at feet and Holy Bible in hand: Carus-Wilson was the founder of Soldiers' Institutes. The north wall has a First World War Memorial in white marble with a black marble background. The walls have plank dado-panelling. The gallery has a later C19 organ, renovated in 1908.

SUBSIDARY FEATURES: Contemporary flint churchyard wall with stone gate piers with moulded caps and case iron gates.

HISTORY: An 1835-7 church in Commissioner's Gothic by R G Wetten, an architect who did not build any other buildings which have been statutorily listed.

SOURCES
Lloyd, D and Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Isle of Wight (2006), 175

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The Church of St John the Baptist, Drake Road, Newport, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural Design: little altered stone Commissioners' Gothic church of 1835-7 with lancet windows, buttresses and octagonal turrets.
* Seating: interior retains the west gallery and most of the box pews.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St. John the Baptist, Newport at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5117248

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)