Church of St John the Baptist

Details

ASTON CANTLOW CHURCH LANE SP15NW (South side) 7/19 Church of St. John the Baptist 01/02/67

- I

Church. Chancel, nave and tower late C13; north aisle and chapel, and upper stage of tower late C14; porch and restoration 1850 by William Butterfield. Chancel, nave and tower of coursed limestone and lias rubble; aisle and chapel of regular coursed lias; porch of rubble, limestone ashlar and timber. Nave and chancel have tile roofs, aisle and chapel have lead. Chancel, nave, north aisle and north chapel, west tower and south porch. Early English and Decorated. 3-bay chancel, 4-bay nave. Chancel has angle buttresses. East and north walls have moulded string courses. 3-light Decorated east window with renewed tracery; bottom section stone-panelled. Three 2-light south windows with differing cusped enriched Y-tracery. Arched doorway between second and third windows has 2 hollow chamfers and studded door with strap hinges. 2-light Early English north window with bar tracery. Hood moulds throughout. Coped gable with mid C19 foliated cross. Nave has arched south door and doorway of 1850. Porch has timber arch. South windows renewed. Two 3-light Decorated style windows with Reticulated tracery and straight heads. Single trefoiled lancet with hood mould. North aisle and north chapel in one. Buttresses and diagonal east buttress. East and north walls have moulded plinths. String course and coped parapet with string course. Double-leaf north door with chamfered arch and hood mould. Niche above has renewed ogee head and remains of medieval carving of the Nativity, with recumbent Virgin (VCH). 3-light Decorated east window with 5 radiating lobes, hood mould and head stops; said to come from a medieval chapel at Wilmcote (VCH). Two 2-light Decorated north windows with ogee lights and hood moulds; easternmost (chapel) window has head stops. Similar west window without hood mould. Hexagonal north-west stair turret, possibly for a beacon; lowered late C19. Slit window and round window with 3 mouchettes high up in north east re-entrant angle. Tower in 2 stages with chamfered plinth, irregular quoins and string course. Diagonal west buttresses with 2 offsets. Early English lower stage has west lancet and small lancet above. Higher up are north, south and west lancets. Upper stage has paired 2-light openings with ogee lights, quatrefoils and hood moulds. Crenellated parapet with string course and pinnacles. Interior: Chancel has low-pitched elliptical arch-braced C15 or C16 roof with moulded purlins and central rib, and brattished wall plates. The easternmost bay is panelled, forming wagon roof painted and decorated with stars, and cutting across the top of th east window. Three C13 sedilia and piscina with hollow-moulded arches, hood mould and head stops. Early English style chancel arch of 1850 has clustered shafts with stiff leaf capitals. Low stone screen walls by Butterfield have coped top and pierced quatrefoils, and Gothic iron gates. Nave has scissor braced roof with collars, probably of 1850. West organ gallery 1850. Triple-chamfered tower arch on moulded corbels. Late C13 two-bay chapel and 4-bay nave arcades have simple arches of 2 chamfered orders, octagonal piers, and moulded capitals and bases. Nave has responds with moulded corbels, the easternmost C19. North aisle and chapel have very low-pitched roof with moulded tie beans. North-west door to stair turret, with sexfoil circular opening high above Fittings: Reredos with tracery panels (Buildings of England); dismantled at time of resurvey. 2 chairs in chancel made from C15 stalls. C15 hexagonal oak pulpit with foiled and crocketed ogee panels, moulded rails and buttresses with finials. C15 octagonal stone font in north aisle has quatrefoil to each face, and stem and buttresses with bearded heads. C17 font stem: wood column with gadrooned top. C15 bench, cut in two, in north aisle has moulded rails and poppy heads. Mid C19 pews and Gothic altar rails. Stained glass: C14 fragments in north aisle north-east window. Nave lancet has good glass of c.1852. Late C19 east and chapel east windows by Charles Kempe. Lead panel, nave west wall: dated 1757 with names of church wardens; removed from chapel roof 1969. The chapel was associated with the Guild dedicated to St. Mary. Listed Grade I for considerable survival of medieval fabric with many medieval windows, unusual stair turret and medieval chancel roof, and as an example oi the restoration by William Butterfield. (V.C.H.: Warwickshire, Vol.111, p.38-40; Buildings of England: Warwickshire, p.75; Paul Thompson: William Butterfield, pp.277,442,479,501).

Listing NGR: SP1376459866

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

305366

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Warwick, (1945), 38-40
Thompson, P, William Butterfield Victorian Architect, (1971), 227,442
Thompson, P, William Butterfield Victorian Architect, (1971), 479,501
Pevsner, N, Wedgwood, A, The Buildings of England: Warwickshire, (1966), 75

End of official list entry

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