Summary
Parish church, built as the chapel of the Hospital of St John in the C13, rebuilt in the C14, with a tower added around 1500, restored by James Tacy Wing in 1869-1870, and vestries added in 1889 and 1910; and associated boundary walls and gates.
Reasons for Designation
The Church of St John and its associated boundary walls and gates are listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the survival of a high proportion of medieval building fabric, having been built in the C13, rebuilt in the C14 and with a tower added around 1500;
* for the successful restoration of the church by James Tacy Wing (1802-1880), a local Bedford architect specialising in church restoration, and with a number of listed buildings to his name.
Historic interest:
* for the historic association of the church with the neighbouring Hospital of St John, for which the Church of St John was built as a hospital chapel;
* for the historic association of the church with the famous preacher and author John Bunyan (1628-1688), whose book ‘The Pilgrim's Progress’, is one of the most published books in the English language, and translated into over 200 languages.
Group value:
* for the strong group value the medieval church holds with the neighbouring Hospital of St John (listed at Grade II*).
History
Dedicated to St John the Baptist, the Church of St John was originally constructed as the chapel of the neighbouring Hospital of St John (now St John’s House), which was reputedly founded by Robert de Parys. The date of the foundation of the hospital is uncertain: it is dated 980 in the transcript of the foundation charter which was entered in 1399 in the episcopal registers at Lincoln, and 1280 in the Chantry Certificates of Henry VIII (VCH). The first date seems too early, and the second is certainly too late. Perhaps the correct date is around 1200, for the first mention of the hospital is found in 1216, and not long after this Bishop Hugh de Wells ordained a vicarage for the Church of St John, which belonged then to the brothers of the hospital. Until the hospital estate was wound-up by an Act of Parliament in 1881, the rectors of the Church of St John were also Masters of the Hospital.
The chapel had become a parish church by the early C14, surrounded on all sides by the parish of St Mary’s. The church fell into disrepair between 1333 and 1349, and was reputedly rebuilt on the old foundations by Bishop Beaufort in 1399 (VCH). It is thought that the chancel may have been added in the late C14, and the Perpendicular west tower was completed around 1500. At the end of the reign of King Henry VIII (1491-1547), it was documented that while the Hospital and Church of St John did not retain any brethren, they did retain a Master, who was also rector of the church. The hospital was not taken into the king's hand at that time, but in 1591 an attempt was made to prove that it had reverted to the Crown by the death of the Master and religious brethren. Oliver St John and others were commissioned to inquire into the foundation and to find out who were the heirs of Robert de Parys. It was finally proved that the hospital had been united with the parish church and was the property of the mayor and corporation, who in 1628 petitioned that there should be no further proceedings against them in respect of it, 'except only by course of law.'
After the Reformation the church fell into decay, and in 1578 the parish officers undertook to have it repaired, but later in the same year complained that its condition was so bad that ‘the parishe is not able to fynishe that they have begone therein’ (Archidiaconal visitations quoted in Bedfordshire Churches). The churchwardens’ accounts chronicle further difficulties in the early C17, and in 1669 the church was reported as ‘fallen downe, and soe hath bin for the space of 7 yeares last past’. By 1700 both church and congregation were in a healthier state, and a faculty was obtained for the erection of a gallery to provide additional seating. The well-known antiquary William Cole visited Bedford in 1760 and described the church as a poor shabby building both inside and out, but considered the rectory excellent with great conveniences of out-houses and gardens, and ‘a cloister running from the house to the chancel door’ (Kuhlicke). When the Rev D T Powell visited the church in 1811, he found it had ‘lately undergone a thorough repair’, considering it ‘thoroughly spoilt’, and particularly disliked ‘the windows in a bad stile of gothic’. All the windows in the nave were apparently altered in the early C19. In 1827 Boissier described the church as ‘modernised in the interior’, and in 1831, J H Matthiason wrote ‘the church has within a few years been considerably improved in appearance’ and ‘the whole range of buildings has been so completely restored and beautified’. Of the church he wrote ‘the interior, though small, is neat, and has a gallery over the entrance’.
The church was again restored in 1869-1870 by James Tacy Wing (1802-1880), a local Bedford architect specialising in church restoration, whose father John Wing had designed the workhouse and gaol in Bedford. The present lancet windows were installed in the chancel and nave; the chancel arch was rebuilt and a further arch added between the chancel and nave; an organ chamber (dated 1869) was added; and the whole building was re-roofed with clay tiles. At this date too, the statue of St John and the Agnus Dei or ‘Lamb of God’, carved by Harry Hems of Exeter, were added to the west front. A vestry was added to the north of the chancel in 1889, and enlarged in 1910. Elsewhere in Bedfordshire, James Tacy Wing is also associated with Biggleswade Town Hall (1844, listed at Grade II); the rebuilding of the Church of St James in Pulloxhill (1845-1846, listed at Grade II*); Marston and Lidlington School (1847, listed at Grade II); and Bunyan Meeting church and school in Bedford (1849, listed at Grade II).
The church is famously associated with the author John Bunyan (1628-1688), who attended the Independent Bedford Gospel Church, and formed a close relationship with its rector John Gifford. Bunyan became a leading supporter of Gifford, and when the rector died, Bunyan was chosen to replace him as preacher. The religious tolerance which allowed Bunyan and nonconformists to preach became curtailed with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and the members of the Bedford Meeting were no longer able to meet in the Church of St John, which they had been sharing with the Anglican congregation. Bunyan was arrested under the Conventicle Act of 1593, which made it an offence to attend a religious gathering other than at the parish church with more than five people outside their family, an offence punishable by a three-month imprisonment, followed by banishment or execution if the person failed to promise not to re-offend. As Bunyan refused to give up preaching, he was imprisoned from 1661 for his persistent preaching and imprisoned for 12 years. During this time, he wrote a spiritual autobiography ‘Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners’, and his most famous book, ‘The Pilgrim's Progress’, which was later published in 1678. The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegorical novel, has become one of the most published books in the English language, and translated into over 200 languages. In 1672 Charles II issued his Declaration of Religious Indulgences, suspending penal laws against nonconformists, and Bunyan, along with other religious offenders, was released from custody and immediately obtained a licence to preach. Bunyan wrote a further 40 books before his death in 1688.
Details
Parish church, built as the chapel of the Hospital of St John in the C13, rebuilt in the C14, with a tower added around 1500, restored by James Tacy Wing in 1869-1870, and vestries added in 1889 and 1910; and associated boundary walls and gates.
MATERIALS: rubble walls with stone dressings, plaster to the interior. C19 clay-tile roof covering, and terracotta ridge tiles.
PLAN: long rectangular-plan church, laid out on an east-west axis, having a square-plan tower to the west end, a nave, a chancel (in two stages) to the east end, and vestries and an organ chamber attached to the north side of the chancel.
EXTERIOR: The nave, chancel, organ chamber and vestries each have pitched roofs, with C19 clay tiles, a variety of terracotta ridge tiles, and stone coping between each section. The walls are composed of rubble stone, with worked dressings. The nave is the earliest part of the church, to which the chancel was added, probably in the C14. The nave, which is approximately 15m long and 5m wide, has two stepped buttresses to its south elevation, which appear to have been added during C19 restoration work (1869-1870 by James Tacy Wing unless otherwise stated). The nave is illuminated by six C19 lancets, three on each of the north and south walls, having ashlar reveals, and pointed hood mouldings with figurative corbels. Between the two westernmost lights on the south elevation, the trace of a former window opening is visible. Under the west window of the south elevation is what appears to be the line of a former door opening. Unusually, the chancel (approximately 15m long and 6.5m wide) is longer and wider than the nave, and is defined by two stages: the western part of the chancel (that closest the nave) has two C19 lancets to its south wall (the western window occupying an earlier larger blocked opening), and a gabled organ chamber, dated 1869, to its north wall; the eastern part of the chancel has a two-light tracery window to the south elevation, a C19 window to the east elevation, and vestries to the north elevation (added in 1889 and enlarged in 1910). The south elevation of the chancel, and the south end of the east elevation retain a continuous string course at varying heights (broken by the C19 lancets), and appears to be original. The south-east corner of the chancel retains an original but restored diagonal buttress in two stages, and a similar buttress at a right angle at the north end of the east elevation. The C19 east window has three lancets set within the jambs of an earlier two-centred arch (visible on the interior), with a C19 hood mould on carved figurative corbels. Over the window, a C19 carved stone cross adorns the apex of the east gable. The vestry on the north elevation of the chancel is constructed of coursed stone, with one pointed window under a hood mould; when the vestry was extended in 1910, a pointed door was added to the west of the C19 window, and a pair of windows and a lancet window were added to the east of the C19 window, each window having a carved hood mould. The Perpendicular west tower, built around 1500, is roughly square in plan and measures approximately 3 metres in width and 18 metres in height. It stands on a panelled plinth incorporating a C19 band of quatrefoil ornament, and is divided externally into three stages by string courses, crowned by an crenelated parapet, all restored by Wing (1869-1870). The western corners have diagonal buttresses in five stages, which stop short of the bell chamber. Buttresses at right angles to the north and south walls, strengthen the north-east corner of the tower and the south-east corner of the stair turret. The west doorway was restored in the C19, and comprises a four-centred arch within a flat-arched surround, with floral mouldings to the spandrels, and wrought-iron strap hinges to the timber-panelled door. Over the door, a C15 pointed window illuminates the gallery, having three cinquefoil-headed lights and one quatrefoil light under a plain hood mould. Over the west window and below the string course marking the bell chamber, is a small carved stone panel of the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), and above this, the carved figure of St John the Baptist in a hood-moulded niche, both by Harry Hems of Exeter (1869-1870). Each elevation of the bell chamber has a pointed-arch under a hood mould, containing two cinquefoil-headed lights under a quatrefoil light. At each corner of the string below the crenelated parapet are carved grotesque heads.
INTERIOR: the interior walls are plastered, with exposed stone window surrounds: the nave has a C19 continuous sill course; and the chancel has a C19 string course at varying levels. The nave has a C19 king-post roof on arched braces, the principals supported on stone corbels. It is without aisles, and measures approximately 15 metres in length and 5 metres in width. The stone window surrounds are exposed, and the western window of the north wall bears a margined stained glass window (possibly early C19) depicting the baptism of Christ by St John. Polychromatic floor tiles and plain pews were introduced to the nave in the late C19. Between the nave and chancel, a C19 pointed arch springs from engaged octagonal corbels. The long chancel measures approximately 15 metres in length and 6 metres in width, being unusually larger than the nave. It is divided into two spaces: the western section closest the nave has a C19 canted timber-boarded ceiling, decorated with red and gold painted frames and foliated bosses; and the east section has a C19 hammerbeam roof supported on foliated stone corbels. The western section of the chancel has a late C19 organ by Hele & Co on its north wall, and a blocked C14 pointed-arch doorway to the east of the organ. The south wall has two exposed C19 window surrounds, both containing stained glass: the eastern window depicts St John the Baptist (1913); and the western window has older latticed leadwork with a stained glass quatrefoil to the apex (possibly early C19). The C19 window surround of the western window is framed by a larger blocked window opening (most likely C14). The west and east sections of the chancel are divided by a C19 pointed arch of two orders with moulded capitals and bases, flanked to each side by a lower C19 pointed-arch. The eastern section of the chancel has a central C19 three-light stained-glass window to the east wall over a C19 wall painting and tiled dais. During the restoration of 1869-1870, a C14 piscina and three sedilia were revealed on the south wall of the chancel. The sedilia are separated from one another and from the piscina by small attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases supporting trefoil-headed ogee arches, the whole in a moulded rectangular frame, which drops to a carved head stop at the east end, immediately above the capital of the east respond to the piscina. The spandrels are carved with an irregular pattern of trefoils and quatrefoils. The seats of the sedilia are about 0.5 metres lower than the piscina. The base of the piscina, which has a central circular stem surrounded by four moulded shafts, appears to have been adapted as a base for a baptismal font in the C20 (after the VCH, 1912), and now stands in the north-west corner of the nave. Over the sedilia is a C19 two-light window with stained glass depicting the Crucifixion and Ascension, the sill of which appears to date from the C14. The north wall bears a late C19 pointed arch to the vestries (built 1889 and extended 1910). The west tower measures approximately 3.5 metres in length and 3 metres in width, and is divided from the nave by a C19 pointed arch with engaged octagonal pilasters. The ground floor of the tower has C19 timber panelling, and a glazed pointed-arch door to the nave, having six margined sidelights to either side, filling the width of the arch. The south-east corner of the tower has an original pointed door surround and door to the stair turret to the bell chamber. From the south-west corner, a C19 sliding door provides access to a stairs to the gallery, which has reclaimed theatre seating, and coloured margins to the C19 west window.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the church is bounded to the west to St John’s Street by a rubble stone wall, approximately 32 metres in length, which adjoins the former Hospital of St John to the north. The rubble wall has cut stone coping, central yellow-brick gate piers, double-leaf cast-iron gates, and a scrolled wrought-iron overthrow, incorporating a square cast-iron lantern. At the south end of the stone wall, a red brick wall extends east on a rubble stone plinth, enclosing the south-west section of the graveyard, and runs north towards the buttress between the nave and chancel. The cloister, or that part of it which joined the hospital to the church was in existence as late as 1760, and evidence of two enclosures survive north-west of the church in the form of rubble stone walls, with some red brick piers.
