Details
SK 1575; 7/14
PARISH OF TIDESWELL,
COMMERCIAL ROAD (North-West Side)
Church of St John the Baptist
12.07.67
GV
I
Church. C14, restored in 1873 by J D Sedding. Coursed gritstone with ashlar
dressings, lead covered pitched roofs, with coped gables to transepts, chancel,
and above chancel arch, which also carries C19 bellcote. West tower, south porch,
north and south aisles and transepts, nave with clerestory, chancel and sacristy.
Two-stage tower with angle buttresses to first stage, bell stage with embattled
parapet. Octagonal corner towers with crocketed pinnacles, and between towers,
crocketed pinnacles rise from parapet. Bell stage has coupled pointed arched
opening with transomed Y-tracery below hoodmoulds. Shallow corbel-table above
window heads has moulded string course above, surmounted by parapet. Tall Perp
5-light west window with panel tracery above west door, with pointed arched head.
Small rectangular lights to upper part of first stage and clock to south wall.
Two-storey porch with diagonal stepped buttresses, pointed arched doorway with
hoodmould and embattled parapet above moulded string course. Narrow lancets light
first floor. North and south aisles of four bays rise from triple-stepped plinth
which continues around the building. Aisle windows of three lights with curvilinear
tracery with moulded string course and embattled parapet above. Aisle bays delineated
by stepped buttresses terminating at the string course. Three-light clerestory windows
of two lights with ogee heads supporting a quatrefoil, beneath a hoodmould.
String course above, and embattled parapet. North and south transepts, each of two bays,
with stepped diagonal buttresses and pinnacles. Parapets with embattled centres,
behind which rise the coped gables of the transepts. Tall, 5-light north and south
windows with hoodmoulds and carved stops, and side wall windows of three lights, all
with bold curvilinear tracery. Four-bay chancel with tall straight-headed 3-light
windows, nearly Perp, but with quatrefoils on trefoils which link the mullions.
These windows clearly post date the flowing tracery of the transepts, but appear
contemporary with the curvilinear tracery of the tall east window. The chancel
bays are defined by stepped buttresses, those to the south wall with pinnacles and
blind tracery to buttress faces. Almost semicircular headed priests doorway with
planked and studded door to south wall, and niches to south transept buttresses.
Pointed arched doorway to north aisle with panelled oak door and hoodmould which
rises from the upper-most moulding of the stepped plinth.
INTERIOR: tall Perp
tower arch with ribbed vaulting below bell chamber. Tower screen by J Oldred Scott,
1904. Ribbed vaulting to south porch and plain doorway to chamber above. Medieval
font with octagonal bowl and fluted stem on a circular base. Bowl decorated with
quatrefoil, chalice, shield and book devices, Four-bay nave with arches rising
almost to clerestory. Nave piers of unusual quatrefoil section with similar moulding
to chancel arch imposts. Arches to two bay transepts are wider than nave arches.
North transept has east wall niches, and two defaced effigies of unknown females,
C12 and C13, together with surviving former chancel stalls with misericords. Organ
by Foster & Andrews of Hull, 1895. South transept with piscina to east wall, with
ogee head and quatrefoils above, and an ogee headed aumbry to south wall. Stone
effigies of Sir Thurstan De Bower, d.1423, and his lady on chest tomb, restored in
1873. Hatchments between windows to Meverill and Statham families and aedicule
wall monument to Thomas Statham. King-post roof trusses to nave and transepts with
arched braces from wall posts to tie-beam soffits and from tie beam to king post
give ogee form, with cusped curved braces rising from principal rafters to purlin
soffits. Arch braces from king posts support ridge. Chancel arch with C14 timber
screen and gates and with canopy of 1883. Evidence of steps to former rood loft on
chancel arch wall, west face, and of earlier roof line on east face. Stone reredos
with embattled parapet has canoped niches with crockets and encloses sacristy at
east end. Canopied niches on east wall flank Tree of Jesse east window by Heaton,
Butler and Bayne, 1875. Ogee headed piscina and triple sedilia with ogee heads and
quatrefoils to spandrels to south wall. Double-blind ogee arches to north wall.
Brasses to Sir John Foljamb, d.1383 (restored) and to Bishop Robert Purseglove,
d.1579, depicted in pre-Reformantion vestments. Chest tomb to Sir Sampson Maverill
d.1462, restored in 1876.
One of the most important of the county's medieval parish
churches in which the development of the Decorated style and the emergence of the
Perpendicular Style in Derbyshire is clearly illustrated.
Listing NGR: SK1525675774
