Details
SU 02 NE BISHOPSTONE BISHOPSTONE VILLAGE
(east side)
Church of St John the Baptist
5/38
23.3.60
GV I
Anglican parish church. C13, C14, C15, restored 1836 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and 1858 by T.H. Wyatt. Rubble stone with flint and dressed limestone,
tiled roof with hip to west. Aisle-less cruciform church with
south porch and north vestry. Gabled 2-storey porch, a C19
rebuild, with double chamfered doorway and cusped lancets to side
walls, upper floor has cusped lancets flanking image niche,
diagonal buttresses, sundial. South side of nave has 3-light
Perpendicular window either side of porch, parapet with saddleback
coping. South transept has 3-light C14 reticulated tracery window
with multifoil over to south side, diagonal buttresses, parapet
with quatrefoils, lean-to 2-bay open arcaded burial chamber with
ribbed vault and chest tomb within, stone roof and heavy
buttresses, possibly to patron, west and east side of transept have
two tall 2-light reticulated tracery windows. Chancel has two large
C14 windows to north and south sides, pointed priest's door has
crocketed aedicule with compressed rib vault, quatrefoil frieze to
parapet, east end has 4-light ogee-headed window with flowing
tracery and multifoil in bow-sided triangle over. North-east angle
of chancel has polygonal 3-stage stair turret with cusped lancets.
C14 vestry/sacristry on north side of chancel has cusped lancet and
ogee quatrefoil frieze to shallow-pitched roof. North transept has
2-light C14 windows to east and west sides, buttresses carried up
to parapet, 3-light window with reticulated tracery to north.
North side of nave has two 3-light Perpendicular window either side
of moulded pointed doorway. West end has diagonal buttresses,
Tudor-arched doorway with ribbed door, 3-light C14 window over.
Two-stage crossing tower has 2-light louvred Perpendicular windows
to each side, string course and battlemented parapet.
Interior: Porch contains newel stone stairs to upper room, C14
pointed arched doorway with double studded doors, stoup to right.
Nave has original 4-bay ribbed ceiling with moulded soffits, stone
floors, two stone corbels on east wall possibly from former rood
loft. Crossing with double chamfered pointed arches with broach
stops, flat ceiling on corbels. Fine south transept has 2-bay
tierceron vaulted ceiling, moulded string course carried over
windows, crocketed piscina canopy on east wall, possibly-by Pugin,
south wall has crocketed niche and fine gothic-style canopied
monument by Pugin, to Rev George Montgomery, died 1842; a
benefaction tablet on north wall records Montgomery's gift for
church restoration, the date 1836 recorded in head of C12 former
window facing crossing. North transept has arched ribbed roof with
carved bosses, ogee niche on north wall, fine segmental-arched
niche with cusping and ballflowers on north wall, containing two
coffin lids. Two-bay chancel has fine rib-vaulted tierceron roof,
ornate 3-seat sedilia with crocketed pinnacles, aumbry and piscina
flank reredos of reset panelling. Image niches flanking east
window, north wall has tryptych painting. Some especially fine
woodwork, possibly imported from Spain and elsewhere; Late
Medieval pulpit with reset carved panels of a woman, a bishop and a
relief of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, similar reset
panelling to reading desk, good choir stalls with panels and good
C19 pews in north transept. C19 octagonal stone font with conical
cover and north side of nave. Royal Arms of George III on east
wall of nave. Good stained glass in east window dedicated to
Montgomerys and Earl and Countess of Pembroke, dated 1836, designed
by Pugin and made by Wailes. Original Medieval glass said to be in
Sacristry. Monuments: relief-carved demi-figure of unidentified
man, died 1612, in north transept, relief-carved coat of arms of
Vaughan family to right. C18 and C19 tablets include a stone
tablet over-south doorway to Michael Throope died 1737 and tablet
over north door to William Rowden, died 1770. An important and
large village church, a former living of the Bishops of Winchester.
(N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, 1975)
Listing NGR: SU0843726526
