Church of St John the Baptist

Details

SJ 73 NE LOGGERHEADS C.P CHURCH ROAD (south - e east side), Ashley 9/2 Church of St John the Baptist 17/11/66 GV II*

Parish church. Medieval origins, totally re-built, except for the tower, by J. Ashdown of London in the Decorated style between 1860 and 1862. Pink sandstone ashlar and tiled roofs, with fish-scale bands, coped verges to the gables; corbel table. Nave and chancel; west tower engaged to aisles, that on north continuous, that on south with a separate chapel at the east end; south porch, choir vestry to west of tower and priest's vestry to east of south aisle chapel. Tower: circa 1350, re-modelled early C17 and restored c.1860. Tall in 3 stages with set-back buttresses; 2-light cusped windows with quatrefoils above (c.1350) to the belfry have hoodmoulds with grotesque labels (early C17); battlemented top with corner pinnacles and gargoyles, C20 brass weather- cock. The slightly splayed flat-headed window on the west face of the second stage is probably C17, but the statue pedestal and the gabled canopy above are C14 - the statue itself, however, is C19; the rather high west window (c.1860) has the flat-roofed choir vestry (1909) beneath. South aisle and chapel: buttressed aisle of 3 bays with rather unconven- tional Flamboyant window tracery; gabled porch in its western bay; to the east higher chapel of 2 bays with plainer window tracery; to the east again is the gabled priest's vestry. Short chancel of 2 bays (the western bay overlapped by the priest's vestry on the south and by the nave aisle on the north), East window blocked (see below), although 2 stone angels remain to indicate its former dimensions. North aisle: of 6 bays with window tracery again exhibiting a variety of Victorian Decorated styles. Interior: architecturally, the most noteable features are the pointed arches by which the tower opens to the nave on the east and to the aisles on the north and south. More striking, however, are the furnishings provided by Cecil Hare, a pupil of Bodley's, in 1910, under the patronage of F.G. Lindley Meynell. Amongst much else, Hare was responsible for the screens, gilded reredos (blocking the East window), the organ gallery, choir stalls, marble flooring, pulpit, brass chandeliers and the panelled and painted chancel roof; it was also under his direction that the great majority of the present stained glass was installed. Other points of interest include the font (1861) unusually built into the north-east pillar of the tower and the C16 alms-dish on a stand incorporating the inscriptions of 2 early C17 bells, which formerly hung in the tower. Monuments: in the north aisle chapel (divided from the aisle by one of Hare's screens), the Gerard monument to Sir Gilbert (died 1592) and his wife (died 1608) - a large alabaste rib-vaulted canopy with round arches at either end and obelisks abov over 2 recumbent effigies, subsidiary figures at the head, foot and in a panel behind; in a recess beneath is a much-worn medieval statue of a shroud-wrapped figure, which, to judge from the weathering, was probably originally in an external position; above the chancel arch (although this is probably not its original position) is the memorial to William Chetwynd of Maer Hall (died 1770) by Joseph Wedgwood - a basalt urn on a narrow inscribed plinth with a fuller inscription on a panel beneath; on the chancel-south wall a large tablet with mourning putto by Nollekens to Hugo Meynell (died 1800) and on the north aisle chapel wall a tablet with a standing putto by an urn to Elizabeth Ingram (died 1817); the remainder of the principal monuments are all in the south aisle chapel and are to members of the Kinnersley family, whose chapel this was: William Shepherd (died 1823) by Ternouth, Thomas (died 1826) by Chantrey, Anne (died 1843), Harriot (also died 1843), Thomas (died 1859) by Noble and Elizabeth (died 1865); all are good examples of C19 funerary art. A C17 cauldron-shaped font, formerly inside the church, is now outside, immediately to the east of the south porch. The church is said to have been founded by Philip de Bromley, c. 1250, and there is documentary evidence that it was re-built c.1350 by David ap Cynwrig; the 1860-2 re-building was financed by the Kinnersleys, and cost ?30,000. B.O.E., pp.62-3.

Listing NGR: SJ7629036437

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

362579

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Staffordshire, (1974), 62-3

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.