Church of St John the Baptist

Details

SJ 40 SE CONDOVER C.P. STAPLETON

9/112 Church of St John the - Baptist 13.6.58 GV II*

Parish church. Uncoursed sandstone and quartzite rubble with ashlar dressings, machine tile roof with coped verges. Circa 1190-1210, re-modelled c.1790 with west tower of c.1840; restoration by Slater and Carpenter in 1867. Nave and chancel in one with former undercroft beneath, west tower and north- east vestry. Tower: 3 stepped stages with pointed angle quoins and voussoirs; 4 round-headed openings to belfry with embattled parapet; west window to second stage, also round-headed, has similar door beneath. Nave: north side has 2 original lancets to upper stage with broad blocked lancet and lancet of 1867 to west; division from former undercroft marked by a chamfered band below which are 3 narrow rectangular slits; flying buttress to centre c.1867; south side: height of former undercroft again marked by a chamfered band below which are a wide round-headed doorway and a narrow rectangular slit to east; above to either side of door are 2 Gothic windows of 1867 with an original lancet to east. Chancel: south side has narrow pointed priest's door (c.1280) and lancet above to east; 2 recessed windows at ground level to east with spherical triangular tracery c.1867; one lancet on north to east of gabled vestry, moved eastwards when the vestry and present east wall (including the triple lancet window) were built in 1867. Interior: no trace now remains of the undercroft (removed in 1786) except for the dispos- ition of the windows; arch-braced roof to nave in 5 bays (1867), the eastern- most truss supported on 2 stone shafts with foliated capitals; contemporary trussed rafter roof with scissor bracing to chancel; west gallery with richly carved and painted organ, also 1867; twin sedilia on south and piscina in north wall date to C19 restoration, but the rectangular recess high up on the south wall is probably a medieval piscina and presumably served the upper level of the church; pointed-arched recesses in north and south walls at west end of chancel are re-cut early C13 work, but their function is unclear; round-headed doorway to tower with raised keystone and imposts (c.1790) has nail-studded door; altar fronted by C17 decorative oak panelling and flanked by 2 tall painted German candlesticks (c.1500), late C19 wall painting to east wall; plain mid-C19 octagonal font is said to have come from the Church of the Holy Trinity, Uppington (q.v. under Uppington C.P.); a piece of embroidery hanging in a frame on the south wall is reputed to have been worked by Mary Queen of Scots and a board on north wall commemorates the repair of the church in 1790. Monument: wall memorial to Thomas Meyrick (died 1778) in tower. The church was probably originally a dependent chapelry of Condover (q.v. under Church of St Mary and St Andrew, Condover). A motte (Scheduled Ancient Monument, County No.183) stands approximately 50m to south-east. B.o.E., p.293; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 6 (1903). Pp.509-13.

Listing NGR: SJ4707604502

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

259414

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cranage, DHS, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire, (1908), 509-513
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 293

End of official list entry

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