Description

ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA

SP3264NW TACHBROOK STREET
1208-1/13/385 (South side)
25/03/70 Church of St John the Baptist

II*

Church. 1877-8, (north-east entrance dated 1877). Architect
John Cundall of Leamington. Pinkish-brown brick in Flemish
bond with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roof.
STYLE: Gothic Revival, Early English.
PLAN: 6-bay nave with clerestory and aisles, 4-stage
north-east tower with spire and south transept, single-bay
apsidal chancel with vestry to south and round-ended Lady
Chapel to north.
EXTERIOR: north side of church faces street. Chamfered plinth,
clasping buttresses to angles and slender buttresses to
clerestory. North and south porches to west end of nave, main
entrance to north porch: slender columns with foliate capitals
support two orders of arches with hollow and roll moulding,
above a blind arcade has central niche with Christ the Good
Shepherd; within, plank door with double-chamfered, pointed
arch. South porch has pointed arch with chamfered jambs and
hollow- and roll- moulding to head, within a pointed plank
door, 2-light window with bar tracery.
West end: first stage, continuous chamfered sill band, 4
lancet windows; second stage: 3 stepped lancets, decorative
band to gable, copings. Aisles (alike): continuous sill band,
pair of lancet windows to each bay with roll-moulded
surrounds, continuous impost band. Clerestory (north and south
alike): continuous sill band, 3 stepped lancets to each bay;
brattished eaves band. Pinnacle to west.
Tower: buttresses with off-sets to almost full height; stair
turret to north-east corner; first stage, to north side a
plank door in pointed-arched surround with continuous
hoodmould, impost band; second stage: 2-light window with bar
tracery to head, hoodmould continues as impost band; third
stage: blind arcade has 2 slit windows, band; 2-light belfry
windows with bar tracery to heads, band with blind arcade,
chamfered band with gargoyles; broach spire has pinnacles to
each corner and further 2-light gabled belfry windows.
South transept: 3-light window with bar tracery to head. 3
trefoil-headed lights to vestry. Lady Chapel has lancet
windows. Chancel has 3-light window with bar tracery to head
and blind bay, apse has pairs of lancets and 3 stepped lancets
to east end.
INTERIOR: brick faced; nave has 6-bay arcade of alternate

octagonal and cylindrical columns with triple-chamfered
pointed arcade with roll- and hollow- moulding; aisle windows
have roll-moulded surrounds; slender piers supporting
chamfered pointed arches to clerestory windows; brattished
cornices. Nave has coved wagon roof. Tall double-chamfered
chancel arch has slender column and 3 orders of arches with
roll-moulding.
Stained glass to chancel and aisles, 1884-9, including north
aisle memorial window to John Cundall, the architect.
To chancel a painted panel of the Baptism and sanctuary
ensemble with elaborate reredos and painted wall frieze all of
c1900.
Minton tiles to chancel floor. Chancel has canted ceiled
panelled roof.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Wedgwood A:
Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-1990: 334).

Listing NGR: SP3212264521

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St John the Baptist's Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5117247

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

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings