CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Parish church of 1787-88, with earlier origin, altered and extended 1870 by F.R. Kempson. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1307407
Date first listed:: 12-Apr-1973
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

User submitted image — Uploaded by ChurchCare This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2004-01-29
Reference:: IOE01/11782/29
Rights:: © Mr John Burrows. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1307407
Date first listed:: 12-Apr-1973
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
Statutory Address 1:: CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: County of Herefordshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Grendon Bishop
National Grid Reference:: SO 59770 56378

Details

GRENDON BISHOP

815/7/436 GRENDON BISHOP 12-APR-73 CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

II

Parish church of 1787-88, with earlier origin, altered and extended 1870 by F.R. Kempson.

MATERIALS: Old Red Sandstone rubble, freestone dressings and buttresses, tile roof and cast-iron rainwater goods.

PLAN: Nave and chancel with lower apse, west tower and spire, south porch.

EXTERIOR: The church is in Gothic-revival style under a steeply pitched roof. The nave has simple pointed windows, 3 in the south wall and 2 on the north. The pointed south doorway has a continuous chamfer, within a pretty timber-framed porch on a dwarf wall. It has open arcaded sides and gable with quatrefoils. The chancel south wall has a 2-light window with central column, and trefoil plate tracery. The apse has single cusped windows under hood moulds, and a sill band. In the 2-stage tower is a 2-light plate-tracery west window. A Norman window has been re-set in the south wall. Bell openings are pointed and on the west side a date tablet is below the sill. The low, splay-foot shingled spire is on sawtooth brick eaves.

INTERIOR: The tower arch, and arch into the sanctuary apse, both have continuous chamfers. There is no break between nave and chancel, which is a unified space with a trussed-rafter roof on moulded cornice. In the apse is a ribbed wooden vault. Walls are plastered and windows have simple chamfered rere arches that die into the imposts. The nave has a flagstone floor with wood floor below the pews. Decorative tiles in the chancel include encaustic tiles.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The round tub font is probably C18. Other fixtures are mainly of 1870, including the pine pews and choirs stalls which have open shaped ends. The C20 pulpit has blind Gothic panels. There are several simple wall monuments. The memorial to Philip South (d 1756) has pilasters, open pediment and urn, by James Yates. Others include two by W. Milton for Captain Joseph Nunn (d 1813) and Philip Morris (d 1816), and two by Philpott of Bromyard to James Parlour (d 1757) and John Jenks (d 1806).

HISTORY: The church is of C12 origin, evidence for which is the re-set south tower window. A tablet inside the church records the rebuilding of the church in 1787-88. The apse was added in 1870, when the interior of the church was also Victorianised, by F.R. Kempson (1837/8-1923). Kempson's architectural practice was based in Hereford and he received many church commissions in Herefordshire.

SOURCES: N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Herefordshire, 1963, p 140. Information from Alan Brooks.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St John the Baptist, Grendon Bishop, is listed Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is an early Gothic-revival church, which retains external character despite later extension, incorporating earlier phases. * The interior retains C19 character and detail.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 151209
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Inventory of Herefordshire II East, (1932), 83

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.