Details
BOMERE HEATH C.P. ALBRIGHTON
SJ 41 NE
6/58 Church of Saint John
- the Baptist
- II
Chapel of ease, now parish church. Nave of 1840-1, by John Carline
of Shrewsbury (1792-1862), chancel added between 1867 and 1881 for Mr.
W.M. Sparrow, and vestry and organ chamber added in 1906. 5-bay nave
and south porch in a neo-Norman style and 2-bay chancel with polygonal
apse, vestry and organ chamber to north in a Lancet Gothic style. Nave
of tooled red sandstone ashlar and late C19 additions in coursed dressed
red sandstone with ashlar dressings. Plain tile roofs, hipped over
apse. Nave: pilaster strips, cill string, corbelled eaves bands and
wide parapeted gable ends with copings and kneelers with carved grotesque
masks. Buttresses to west with chamfered tops. Cross at apex to east
and rectangular bellcote corbelled out at apex to west, with chamfered
round-arched openings, gable to each face and wrought-iron weathervane.
Deeply roll-moulded round-arched windows with diamond-leaded glazing.
Roll-moulded south doorway in second bay from west; 2 boarded doors with
strap hinges. South porch with gabled flanking buttresses and parapeted
gable with stone coping and cross at apex. Roll-moulded round archway
and small blind chamfered round arch in apex of gable above. Pairs
of chamfered round-arched side windows. West end of nave has late C19
window of 3 ogee trefoil-headed lights with cusped reticulated tracery,
hollow-chamfered reveals,moulded cill and returned hoodmould. Chancel:
chamfered plinth, moulded cill string, and cross finial on hip to east.
Chamfered lancets with hoodmoulds (continuous over south windows) ending
in carved stops, and diamond leaded glazing. Vestry and organ chamber:
one storey and attic. Chamfered plinth, stepped cill string at eaves
level to north, parapeted gable to north with stone coping, and integral
stone end stack with chamfered offsets and shaft with chamfered corners,
moulded bands, and chamfered cap. Chamfered lancet in gable to north,
and one-storey lean-to to east with chamfered rectangular window to left
and boarded door to right with chamfered reveals and chamfered wooden
lintel. Square section cast-iron downpipes with castellated rainwater
heads. Interior: 4-bay nave roof with moulded wooden wall plate,purlins,
and collar and tie-beam trusses with queen struts and curved braces.
Nave windows with splayed jambs and west window with chamfered rear arch.
2-bay chancel roof with moulded wooden. wall plate,
ashlar pieces, single purlins with cusped windbraces,
chamfered arched-braced collar truss, and apse with radiating arched-
braced principal rafters. Late C19 chancel arch, with chamfered outer
order, moulded inner order, dying into reveals, and hoodmould with carved
stops (that to left defaced). Chancel windows with chamfered rear arches.
East windows have moulded cill string with carved stops, chamfered cusped
rear arches, and continuous hoodmould with carved stops. Organ arch
to north, chamfered jambs with broach stops at base and bar stops
at top. Fittings: old oak communion table. C19 wooden altar rails
and choir stalls. Plain C19 wooden lectern. C17 polygonal wooden
pulpit with deeply-recessed moulded panels, door with H-hinges, panelled
back board, and tester with carved scrolled brackets, fluted frieze,
moulded cornice and pendants at corners. Probably C12 tapered circular
stone font with chevron and horseshoe-shaped ornament; plain wooden cover.
C19 stained glass in east windows. Monument: stone tablet to Thomas
Ireland (d.1729) with cable-fluted pilaster strips, moulded cornice and
carved coat of arms above, and moulded base with shaped bracket. Other
plain late C18 and early C19 memorial tablets. Encaustic floor tiles.
This church was formerly a chapelry of Saint Mary's Church, Shrewsbury
and there has been a chapel on this site from at least the C12. B.o.E.,
p. 56; D.H.S. Cranage, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shrop-
shire, Part 9, pp.742-3; Colvin, p, 188.
Listing NGR: SJ4973818017
