Parish Church of St John the Evangelist, Higham, Lancashire

Summary

Anglican church of 1874, by William Waddington (Snr) of Burnley. Early English style, of gritstone with Welsh slate roof. Chancel with North vestry, no transepts, wider aisleless nave with South East organ loft, South West turret with small stone spire, South porch.

Description

Anglican church of 1874, by William Waddington (snr) of Burnley. Early English Gothic style.

MATERIALS: regular coursed Hazel Greave gritstone from Black Hill quarry at Read, lightly punch dressed. Welsh slate roof. Some Padiham bluestone for steps and internal stonework.

PLAN: chancel with north vestry, no transepts, wider aisleless nave with south east organ loft, South West turret with small stone spire, south porch.

EXTERIOR: set higher than the road and forming a prominent landmark at the eastern end of the village. The east and west walls extend as stepped in-line buttresses, except at the SW corner where the buttress to the turret is diagonal. There is a chamfered plinth and projecting string course which is holed for rainwater pipes. The roof is of regularly coursed blue slates with a decorative ridge cresting of trefoils and crosses to the organ loft and porch. Plain windows are diagonally leaded with textured yellow glass and inward opening hoppers, the east and west windows have stained glass. Strap pointing has been applied to the east and west walls, and rainwater goods have been replaced throughout; holes indicate there were formerly larger fixings.

The chancel has two bays. The Decorated style east window is of three lights rising to geometric tracery, with a dripmould that terminates with carved faces whose identity is not known. The apex of the east gable contains a blind round window housing a six pointed star of interlocked triangles, and is topped by another wheelhead cross with fleur-de-lys arms. The string course forms a sill band and steps down to either side, returning around the buttresses formed at each side as an extension of the East wall. The lean-to vestry abuts the chancel North wall, with flat-headed mullion windows and door. Steps lead down to the boiler room below the vestry. The northern sanctuary window is a shouldered lancet, with a projecting sill band with foliate terminals at each end. The south wall is flanked by a buttress which is a continuation of the east wall, and the organ loft to the south of the nave. A buttress divides the sanctuary from the choir; a single shouldered lancet lights the sanctuary and a pair light the choir, their sill heights matching the string band which steps down from sanctuary to choir. On this elevation the chancel eaves are corbelled with alternate quadrant and nailhead designs.

The nave is slightly higher than the chancel. The North wall is plain, with two pairs of lancets (each pair sharing a sill) to each side of a central buttress. At the south east corner of the nave lies the organ loft. The string band returns from the chancel along the east wall of the organ loft, where it forms a pointed hoodmould to a small window and then returns around a very shallow buttress onto the south elevation, to form a sill band to the window. The window is very similar in design to the west window of the nave. To the left of the window the string band steps down again. It returns along the west face of the organ loft, where it steps down for a third time and returns along the south wall of the nave, forming a sill band to the two pairs of lancets, with a buttress between the pairs. The band terminates to the left of the windows with a foliate stop, leaving the porch unadorned.

The south porch is a steep, low gable, similar to but smaller than the organ loft, with the same ridge cresting. The chamfered projecting plinth of the building forms the base of a short buttress at either side of the central steps, and this slopes inwards to meet the low eaves. The doorway is a pointed arch with a drip mould with floral stops. The dragon-like appearance of the door hinge scrollwork may allude to St John’s triumph over the poison chalice at Ephesus. The handrails to the steps are modern. Over the door is a pair of small slim lancets (sharing a lintel and sill) which reveal the inner skin of the wall. The gable ridge has an ogee profile; astride this sits a cross whose base splays to rest on the upper coping stones of the gable, and has a steep gablet to either side. The cross is an open quatrefoil with fleur-de-lys arms.

The turret occupies the south west corner abutting the porch. It has a single stage, lower than the nave ridge, with a diagonal buttress on the south west corner. The stone spire is square in plan with chamfered corners, with steep gablets on all four sides to the louvred openings of the belfry, and two bands of small blind lights on the spire faces.

At the west end the string course runs from the turret around the buttress and along the West wall, stepping up where it becomes a sill band for the west window, beyond which it ends with a decorative terminal. The early English window comprises paired lancets sharing a sill, with an occulus above, and a drip mould with decorative terminals. Above this is a smaller blind trefoil in a circular surround. The gable carries a cross with fleur-de-lys arms.

INTERIOR: internally the church is simple but little altered and retains the majority of its suite of fittings.

The chancel is reached up three central steps through a low stone wall; the top step is slightly narrower and canted to meet the screen wall. This has two chamfered steps and a coping that is steeply duo-pitched with a roll-top ridge, and gablets facing the nave and steps. The walls are plain and the single pew to either side is not original. The altar rail is original but now sits forward of the vestry door and the step up to the sanctuary. The choir floor is carpeted but original patterned tiles survive well underneath. The sanctuary has floor tiles depicting symbols of the Passion. The east window depicts the Resurrection (artist and date are unknown but the window was given by the dowager Anne Starkie). The choir roof is of slender rafters with struts to the wallplate, while the sanctuary is emphasised with two principal trusses with a collar, and queen struts which meet. The purlins are exposed and rafters more closely spaced, while curved braces run under the principal rafters from the collar to corbels below the eaves. The plaster reredos by local craftsman Cornelius Anderton is inscribed with the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Pater Noster, with three central panels depicting the bread of life, the agnus dei and the true vine.

A five sided oak pulpit with fruit and foliate carving and Decorated style panels, and a wooden lectern depicting the eagle of St. John are thought to have been carved locally. The Wordsworth and Maskell pipe organ is listed with the British Historical Organs Society. This was first constructed in the adjacent school until the church was ready to house it and is thus older than the building. Few of the nave pews have been removed, and these have been partly replaced by pews relocated from the choir. The nave is also carpeted but the majority of the checked floor tiles remain beneath. The nave roof has no principal rafters; each slender truss has struts to a collar and to the wallplate, and the close spacing results in an impression similar to a barrel vaulted ceiling. The West window is of stained glass by CE Kempe and dedicated to Ann Clayton, who died in 1879. The font is very similar to the reredos and may be by the same artist. On the north wall is a marble memorial to the long-serving churchwarden Henry Dyson (1867-1942), his wife Elizabeth (1868-1911) and their son George (1902-3). Two large decorative radiators (one in the nave, one in the sanctuary) bear the name of the local foundry of Blezards.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the boundary wall to the road is of the same coursed gritstone with chamfered copings stepping down the hill and ridged capping to the gate piers, and decorative iron gates at the western and eastern end.

History

The Parish church of St John the Evangelist, Higham, was built between 1872 and 1874 by public subscription. It was designed by William Waddington (Snr) of Burnley. It took over the function of providing Church of England services from the National School (Grade II) which was built in 1837 and hosted services until the church was opened (for two years or so also hosting the organ, which was supplied prior to the completion of the church). Higham was formerly an extra-parochial area as it was within the Royal Chase of Pendle.

Land was provided by Le Gendre Starkie of Huntroyd Hall, who also subscribed to the building fund along with the Lord of the Manor the Duke of Buccleuch (who also provided the freehold of the site), other local gentry including the Shuttleworth family of Gawthorpe Hall, and many parishioners.

The porch has been enclosed by moving the doors to the outer opening. This presumably took place when the inner doors were made; an inscription records that they were given in memory of a churchwarden who died in 1942 (he is also named on a memorial on the north wall of the nave). There was a small reordering in 1990 mainly involving the removal of some of the nave pews and all of the choir pews, half of which were relocated to the nave. The altar rail was brought forward slightly and the pulpit relocated to the south side. An electric organ has also been installed. The majority of the nave pews remain in situ. A historic photograph shows that the chancel and east walls were once painted or papered with a fleur-de-lys pattern, and there was an inscription around the chancel arch. Traces of paint suggest that the chancel ceiling at least was also more decorative than it is now.

A clock placed on the church tower in 2000 commemorates Higham being the birth place of Sir Jonas Moore, founder of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Reasons for Listing

The Parish church of St. John the Evangelist, Higham of 1874, by William Waddington (Snr) of Burnley, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural quality: as a good example of sensitive gothic design on a small scale.
* Degree of survival: due to its little altered appearance and arrangements, enhanced by sensitive re-ordering.
* Fixtures and fittings: for its good quality fixtures and fittings, in particular the Wordsworth and Maskell organ and west window by CE Kempe.

External Links

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