Church of St John the Baptist

Details

GREAT RISSINGTON GREAT RISSINGTON VILLAGE SP 1917-2017 9/151 Church of St John the Baptist 25.8.60 GV II* Anglican parish church. C12, C15, C16, largely rebuilt 1873 (possibly by S.L. Pearson). Coursed squared and dressed limestone interspersed with bands of ashlar. Dressed stone quoins. Stone slate roof. Cruciform plan with crossing tower. Lean-to vestry on the north side of the chancel. Nave, rebuilt c1500, restored late C19. Two-light pointed stone-mullioned windows with quatrefoils on the south side. C19 porch projects forwards towards the west end. Early-mid C18 headstone with an almost illegible inscription to the left of the porch, segmental head, ornately carved margin to the inscription. Winged cherub's head at the top, foliate scrollwork and bunches of grapes either side. Large C19 west window comprising two 2-light pointed windows with quatrefoils with a rose window above all set back slightly within a pointed surround. The north wall retains some of its early C16 features; a blocked Tudor-arched doorway with quatrefoils in the spandrels and a moulded rectangular surround. The torsos of winged and crowned angels each holding a shield, upper right and left. Two 2-light cinquefoil-headed windows with hollow-moulded chamfers and hoods (one with circular stops one with plain stops). North transept, rebuilt C14. Squat segmental pointed 3-light window with a moulded stopped hood in the north facing gable. Early east window with three trefoil-headed lights and quatrefoils within a rectangular surround with a roll-moulded hood. Monument built into the wall to the right of the window to Josiah Palmer, died (?)1772, fluted pilasters with decorative capitals either side of the inscription. Vestry added late C19. Two C19 lancet windows. Two C19 plank doorways within flat-chamfered segmental-pointed archways. Single lancet in the east facing wall of the vestry. Chancel restored in C13 style. The east window of the chancel comprises 3 graded lancets with stopped hoods with either foliate or head stops. Two C19 pointed 2-light windows in the south wall with relieving arches and hoods with foliate stops. The south transept was restored late C19 but retains a single C12 round-headed window with a hollow- chamfered surround in its left-hand return. C16 four-light south window (restored C19) with four-centred arched heads to each light all within a rectangular casement moulded surround, moulded hood with diamond stops. Sundial with a metal gnomon immediately above the window. Similar but 3-light window to the left-hand return. Three-stage tower. The base of the tower dates from c1200 (see church interior). The upper stages were rebuilt during the C15. Diagonal buttresses. String course between the stages. Two-light belfry windows with stone louvres to the second stage. Segmental- headed hood with large stops in the form of human heads over each window. Battlemented parapet. String below parapet with head gargoyles offset from the corners. Crocketed pinnacles at each corner. Porch, rebuilt 1873 with a pointed entrance with engaged C13 columns either side. Boot scrapers either side of the entrance. Stone bench seats along the inside walls. Mutilated C15 carved stone panel (formerly painted) representing in the upper part the Crucifixion and in the lower the Ascension. Shallow canopy and brattished cornice reset in the east wall of the porch. Church interior. Plastered five-bay nave, crossing with north and south transepts (with chantry chapel at the south end) and chancel. Pointed arches on all four sides of the crossing. The west arch of the crossing has two orders of semi-cylindrical shafts with scalloped capitals. The north respond of the chancel arch similar. The arch opening into the north transept is much lower springing from single responds with heavy foliated capitals, probably a little later in date. The south transept has plain square-cornerd responds like the south respond of the chancel arch, this arch is probably the latest of the four. C19 arch-braced roof trusses, rising from C19 corbels, to the nave. C19 straddle beams and plank boarding to the crossing. Wagon roof to the south transept. C19 roof to its north transept. C19 roof to the chancel. C15 cinquefoil-headed niche decorated with stencilled stars of David in the north-east corner of the north transept. Diagonally set cream and red floor tiles to the nave and transepts. Stone flag floor to the chancel. C14 piscina with an ogee-curved head reset in the south wall of the south transept. Pointed arches over the windows and along the north wall in the chancel rising from C13 engaged columns with keel mouldings and capitals. Similar engaged columns over the chancel east window. Furniture and fittings; C15 octagonal font at the west end of the nave. Organ erected 1940 at the west end of the nave. Late C19- early C20 pews. The pulpit, desk, lectern, the dorsal, painted riddle posts and curtains and the screen dividing the chantry chapel from the rest of the south transept were designed in 1940 by H. Stratton Davies. Monuments; white marble plaque commemorating those who died in World War I in the nave. Four monuments in the south transept from left to right; simple oval marble plaque to John Ansell, died 1796 and Betty Ansell, died 1813. Limestone monument to Mary Crips, died 1739, winged angel's head at top with a segmental moulding above linking two fluted columns. Short rhyming verse below the inscription. Monument to the right to Thomas Cambray, died 1740. Oval inscription plaque with a moulded margin, winged cherub's heads upper right and left outside the inscription plaque. Foliate scrollwork lower right and left. Rhyming verse below the inscription. Fine monument to the right to John Barnarde, Gent, died 1621. Limestone. Two kneeling figures in bold relief with a winged angel's head above. Marginal panels either side with foliate, knotwork, hourglass and skull motifs. Jacobean scrollwork incorporating the letters 'I.B' and a plain heraldic shield above. Vitruvian scrollwork and corbels in the form of human heads below. C19 stained glass in the chancel east window. C20 stained glass in the nave west window. (V.C.H., Vol VI, p 105; and David Verey, The Buildings of England, Gloucestershire, The Cotswolds, 1979)

Listing NGR: SP1951817152

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

130884

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire 1 The Cotswolds, (1970)
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, (1965), 105

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