Church of St John the Baptist with Churchyard Cross and Lych Gate, Crowthorne, Bracknell Forest

Description

CROWTHORNE

674-1/0/10012 WATERLOO ROAD
04-DEC-09 Church of St John the Baptist with chu
rchyard cross and lych gate

GV II
Parish church, 1873-90, by AW Blomfield, with later extensions (that at west end, 1968, is not of special interest); churchyard cross and lych gate, 1913, the latter altered 1921.

MATERIALS: Local red brick with bands of black brick and Bath stone dressings; tiled roof.

PLAN: Aisled nave, chancel with lady chapel to south and organ chamber and vestry block to north. Large hall extension to west end.

EXTERIOR: The church is built in a High Victorian version of the Decorated Gothic style, with steep gabled roofs, buttressed walls and windows with bar tracery - large and elaborate in the east and west windows, smaller and simpler in the aisle, chapel and vestry. The nave roof continues down over the aisles in a catslide, broken on each side by two transverse gables with Y-traceried windows. The chancel, lady chapel and choir vestry each have their own pitched roofs, presenting a trio of gables to the east. The east and west gables have cross finials, and on the roof-ridge between nave and chancel is a tall steep-gabled bellcote. The west front below the main west window is obscured by the flat-roofed brick extension of 1968 (not of special interest). A stone consecration cross is set into the wall beneath the east window.

INTERIOR: The nave interior has cylindrical stone piers supporting a four-bay unmoulded arcade of striped brickwork. The space is spanned by an open arch-braced roof on stone corbels; the aisles have a complex roof-structure, the gable bays having paired collared rafters resting on transverse beams with arched braces below. A wide rectangular opening has been made under the west window to give access to the extension. The broad chancel arch springs from corbels in the form of flat pilasters with foliate capitals. Beyond, the chancel itself has a boarded wagon roof and is flanked by two-bay arcades with foliate capitals. The east wall has been whitewashed; the east window recess has a hood-mould and is framed by ringed granite shafts. To the south lies the lady chapel, which has a wagon roof and a lancet east window. To the north is the organ chamber, and beyond that a small clergy vestry and a larger choir vestry with traceried windows and a wagon roof.

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS: An almost complete set of original fittings survives, albeit much rearranged. These include open-backed pews, carved oak choir stalls with poppy-heads (now moved to the sanctuary), oak screens to the lady chapel and organ chamber (the latter perhaps also relocated), an oak reredos (moved to the Lady Chapel in 1958, with figures added at that time by Colin Shewing) an oak pulpit on a stone base, and a stone font (now in the south aisle). The aisles and chancel are floored in red and black quarry tiles. Various memorial tablets, mostly to former vicars, are displayed in the chancel. In this area there is also a modern forward altar on a platform surrounded by simple oak rails.

STAINED GLASS: The great east window is by Charles Eamer Kempe and shows the Crucifixion flanked by saints and prophets with Biblical scenes below. The late C19 east window of the Lady Chapel depicts the Madonna and Child. There are three lancet-shaped stained glass panels in the westernmost south aisle window; the other windows have plain leaded glass.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: In the churchyard are a stone CROSS and a LYCH GATE, both erected by anonymous parishioners in 1913. The cross, immediately west of the church, has a tall shaft with a cusped head and bud-like mouldings to its base; it is set on a square stepped plinth, whose upper stage bears text in free Arts and Crafts-style lettering: 'To the Glory of God and in remembrance of many who without memorial rest in his most loving keeping this Cross is dedicated AD 1913'. At the south-east corner of the churchyard is a lych gate, an open oak-framed canopy with a tiled roof resting upon low stone-coped brick walls. A Gothic text on the lintel describes it as 'A-Thankoffering'. The structure has been adapted to serve as a war memorial, with plaster tablets bearing the names of the Fallen inserted into four of the eight arched side panels.

HISTORY: A temporary wooden chapel was established at Crowthorne in the 1860s to serve the expanding modern village. Meanwhile, funds were raised for a permanent church, one of the principal patrons being nearby Wellington College. Designs were obtained from the architect A W Blomfield, and the nave and aisles of the church were completed and consecrated in 1873. The chancel and its furnishings followed in 1889-90, yielding a complete church with seating for 300 worshippers. The east window was installed in 1894, the design having been commissioned from the studio of Charles Eamer Kempe 10 years previously. In 1909 the choir vestry was extended, and in 1913 two anonymous parishioners paid for the erection of the churchyard cross and lych gate; to the latter were added in 1921 a series of memorial tablets commemorating the dead of the Great War. A large extension, incorporating a hall, toilets and meeting rooms, was added to the west end of the church in 1968 by the architect David Evelyn Nye, entailing the demolition of Blomfield's apsidal western baptistery. Various internal reorderings also took place during the later C20, most notably the creation of the present forward altar platform in 1980.

Arthur William Blomfield (1829-1899) was one of the most prolific and successful Gothic Revival architects of the C19. The son of Charles James Blomfield, bishop of London from 1828 to 1856, he was educated at Rugby and Cambridge before being articled to Philip Charles Hardwick in 1852. He was one of the leading exponents of what has become known as the High Victorian style in architecture, in which the English Gothic models advocated by Pugin were combined with elements drawn from Italian, French and German medieval traditions. His best-known buildings include the Royal College of Music in South Kensington (Grade II, 1889-94) and, also in London, the nave of Southwark Cathedral (Grade I, 1890-97). He was also responsible for the chancel at Wellington College Chapel (Grade II, 1886-9).

SOURCES: Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Berkshire (1966)
Bracknell Forest Council, Conservation Area Appraisal: Church Street, Crowthorne (2009)
Plan of St John's as built, at www.churchplansonline.org, accessed on 2 October 2009

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
The Church of St John the Baptist, designed by Arthur Blomfield and built between 1873 and 1890, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: a well-composed and well-crafted building in the High Victorian manner by one of the leading church architects of the late C19;
* Fixtures and fittings: retains nearly all of its high-quality furnishings of 1890;
* Group value: the church, churchyard cross and lych gate are closely related both historically and visually;
* Historic interest: the lych gate has national significance as a memorial to those who fell in the Great War.

Reasons for Listing

The Church of St John the Baptist, designed by Arthur Blomfield and built between 1873 and 1890, along with the churchyard cross and lych gate, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: a well-composed and well-crafted building in the High Victorian manner by one of the leading church architects of the late C19;
* Fixtures and fittings: retains nearly all of its high-quality furnishings of 1890;
* Group value: the church, churchyard cross and lych gate are closely related both historically and visually;
* Historic interest: the lych gate has national significance as a memorial to those who fell in the Great War.

External Links

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