Details
ST6718 MILBORNE PORT CP BATHWELL LANE (East side)
12/105 Church of St John the Evangelist
24.3.61
GV I
Parish church. Substantial C11 portions with later additions, including work by Henry Hall (1867-69) and Sir Walter
Tapper (1908). Ham stone ashlar; stone slate roofs between coped gables with finials, some lead roofs behind parapets.
Cruciform plan with added North aisle and North East chapel and tower over crossing; chancel of 2 bays, transepts one
bay each, and nave and North aisle 5 bays. Chancel has rough plinth, fragments of cill course and an eaves course of
C11 character; single C14 traceried 4 light East window under pointed label with headstops; similar 3-light to East bay
South side, a tall lancet possibly C11 adapted and a lower 2-light long lancet style window, uncertain date: some
traces of Saxon/early Norman arcading of two types between the windows at high level. South transept rebuilt in 1842;
C12 style windows in East and West walls, and a 2-light C13 style window in South wall, under a trefoil gable vent.
Nave rebuilt and extended 1867-69 in C15 style, diagonal corner buttresses; 3 light traceried window under labels with
mostly foliated stops; to second bay from East a tall restored Cll/C12 doorway of two orders, with derivative
Corinthian columns, roll moulds to arches, double billet moulding to impost and stylised chevron and billet label; the
tympanum with two Celtic-style animals. West front a copy of the C15 original, with arched doorway under square label,
foliated spandrils, flanked by statue niches; above a 5-light transomed traceried window under arched label with
angel-stops, a cinquefoil gable vent. North aisle matches nave, but has offset corner and intermediate buttresses,
terminating in pinnacles; plain parpet stepped up to pinnacles; North transept similar. North East chapel of three
bays, two as the nave, but East bay has small restored C11 window, in centre bay plinth a low 4-centre arch to crypt;
East wall has two small single lancets. Tower, C11 in lower parts, two plain stages above roof line are mainly C14/C15;
traces of cill arcading in lower North stage, which also has a small plain rectangular window; other faces of this
stage blank: upper stage, with offsets and small corner buttresses, string courses, crenellated parapet, corner
pinnacles and gargoyles, and 2 light C15 traceried windows with pointed labels to each face, massive low buttress to
South East corner, and on South West corner an octagonal turret of Saxon/Norman character of 4 stages, hipped stone
roof, circular shafts in corners against nave and South transept for two stages; stepped plinth, string courses, of
which the lowest has a billet mould, the second is plainer with shallow false gablets; much of the masonry is faced
with small square slabs set diamond wise; two circular windows to West, plain door to South. Interior: chancel
composite crown post and scissor truss open roof has a decorated canopy over the sanctuary by Tapper; the walls have
traces of C11 openings, with a cinquefoil rere-arch to the tall South lancet, with a C15 arcade to North East chapel,
and in East wall, flanking the window two statue recesses containing figures by John Skelton (1972); altar by Tapper.
C15 chancel screen with delicate traceried panels in highly moulded frames, foliated cornice. North East chapel
remodelled but retains C15 archway into North aisle. The crossing mostly C11 work, with 5 circular shafts to each jamb,
heavy cushion and roll bases and highly carved bowl capitals with Celtic decoration; semi circular arches retained to
transepts, but chancel and nave arches adapted in C14/C15; elaborate C15 panelled roof over. North aisle and nave are
mainly C19 rebuilds, The South transept has an arched recess with a C14 female stone effigy, and a piscina nearby. C14
stoup in the nave by the south door, Fittings include C12 font; hatchment dated 1662 in the North aisle; East window by
Bainbridge Reynolds, 1908, (Guide to the Parish Church of Milborne Port, 1971; Pevsner, Buildings of England, 1958;
Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 1965).
Listing NGR: ST6763618536
