Church of St John the Baptist

Details

SO 67 SE
2/156

MAMBLE CP
MAMBLE
Church of St John the Baptist

18.04.66

GV
I
Parish church. c1200 with early C14, C16 and late C18 alterations and additions; restored in 1880. Coursed dressed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings; brick additions and plain tiled roofs with moulded bargeboards at gable ends; timber bell-tower with shingled bell-turret.

Three bay nave with walls continued at west end to enclose tower structure; south aisle with south porch; chancel of roughly two bays with south vestry added at east end of south aisle and with Blount Chapel adjoining north elevation. Norman and Decorated styles.

Nave: original clasping gabled pilaster buttresses at west end; also C19 buttress with offsets to north elevation; C13 lancet at west end; north elevation also has C13 lancet and two restored C14 windows of two lights with hoodmoulds at eastern end; to the west of them is a blocked doorway with pointed head and segmental rear arch now screened by lean-to brick addition; above the addition is a gabled dormer with a stone chimney at its apex. The south elevation has a C19 doorway with hoodmould at its western end; bell-turret has a square base with paired louvred rectangular lights in its north, south and west elevations and broach spire and weathervane.

South aisle: c1200, widened in C14; separate gabled roof and restored buttresses with offsets at ends and bay divisions; two restored two-light windows with hoodmoulds. South porch to west is gabled and timber-framed with two rows of close-set studding, brick infill and a brick plinth; the south doorway within has a pointed head with sunk quarter rounds and a segmental rear arch.

Chancel: two buttresses with offsets to south elevation; C19 east window of three lights; two C13 lancets at eastern end of south elevation; C19 vestry addition to south west extending south aisle eastwards; two-light window in east gable end, long lancet and doorway in south elevation; east end windows of chancel and vestry and south vestry door have hoodmoulds.

Blount Chapel: C16; red brick with blue brick diaper patterning refaced in C18; roof demolished mid C20; two bays; diagonal buttresses at north corners and central north uttress; large pointed window in north and east elevations of C18 date; also blocked window in north elevation.

INTERIOR: three bay south arcade has two-centred arches of two orders, circular columns with bell capitals and grooved and chamfered abaci; semicircular responds. Similar chancel arch, inner order has a double roll separated by a square fillet, outer roll moulding on west side, shafted inner order (the shafts having rudimentary foliated capitals) and also grooved and chamfered abaci continuing to side walls as band.

Tower separated from nave by late C16 timber-framed partition with rendered infill; lower section has central doorway with three-light diamond wood-mullioned opening to left and similar seven-light openings either side; panels beneath openings are oak-boarded. C17 minstrels gallery above door lintel level with small door to north side. Tower framework probably c1200 has massive scissor-braced corner posts reaching nearly to apex of nave roof. Roofs all restored in C19; nave has crown-post roof.

Chancel has large arch into chapel and small archway into vestry; both four-centred; elaborately carved reredos of probable C17 date. Font is c1200 and has a circular bowl and stem. C19 three-sided pulpit. South aisle has C14 piscina with cusped ogee-arched head; also C14 tomb recess with a crocketted and finialed ogee-arched head, slender pinnacled buttresses at each side and containing a skeleton.

Memorials: chancel has a late C13 recumbent effigy of a knight, a large chest tomb with strapwork panels (on which the skeleton is reported to have been originally situated) and an early C16 brass to John Blount and his wife with figures about three feet long; also two ledger slabs with illegible inscriptions. Nave has two simple mid C18 wall memorials. In south aisle above the tomb recess is a sarcophagus relief with draped urn of the late C18 to the Watkins Meysey family; also an early C19 urn relief memorial with tree and medallion detail to Watkins family and two mid C19 memorials at west end of aisle.

Glass: east window has a fine early C14 panel of the Crucifixion. Glass elsewhere is early C20.

This medieval church retains several features of particular interest including its bell-tower framework, minstrels gallery and partition, tomb recess, several good memorials and its C14 glass.

Listing NGR: SO6884071614

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

149349

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Worcester, (1924), 287-9
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (1968), 219-20

End of official list entry

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