Summary
Anglican church, built as a chapel of ease between 1875 and 1876 to architectural designs by John Drayton Wyatt.
Reasons for Designation
St John’s Church in Beck Row, built as a chapel of ease between 1875 and 1876 to architectural designs by John Drayton Wyatt is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an accomplished design by architect and architectural illustrator John Drayton Wyatt, then architect to the Diocese of Ely, who has a number of listed buildings to his name;
* for the quality of the architectural materials and craftsmanship, which juxtapose local vernacular flint traditions alongside polychromatic ornamentation and skilled stone masonry;
* the interior survives substantially intact with almost all of its historic fixtures in situ, making it a very complete example of a modest Victorian church.
Historic interest:
* for the close relationship the church holds with nearby RAF Mildenhall, and the support it provided servicemen and women during the Second World War (1939-45);
* a Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot was established in the churchyard during the Second World War and a Cross of Sacrifice was dedicated in 1949.
History
St John’s Church was built between 1875 and 1876 as a chapel of ease for a rural part of the parish of Mildenhall; it became a separate parish in 1979. The church was designed by architect and architectural illustrator John Drayton Wyatt (1820-1891) then architect to the Diocese of Ely, and the contractor was William Edwards of Mildenhall. Wyatt joined the practice of George Gilbert Scott and William Moffat in 1841 as assistant draughtsman and became Scott’s assistant. He was a co-founder of the Association of Architectural Draughtsmen in 1842, which merged with the Architectural Association in 1847. He became Scott’s assistant and chief perspectivist, producing numerous views of Scott’s work for publication, including the Albert Memorial and the chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge. Between 1858 and 1863 Wyatt worked on Scott’s restorations at Sudeley Castle (Grade I), and in 1865 Scott and Wyatt designed the nearby almshouses at Dent’s Terrace in Winchcombe (Grade II listed). Wyatt set up on his own around 1865 and continued to work in the Gothic Revival style. His practice included both church restorations such as St Peter’s, Winchcombe (1870-73, Grade I), and new churches such as Christ Church, Gretton, Gloucestershire (1868, Grade II) which has some features in common with St John’s, Beck Row.
At the time when Beck Row was under construction, Wyatt was working nearby on the restoration of the south aisle at St Mary’s, Mildenhall. The site of the Beck Row church was part of a large meadow that had passed to the Church Commissioners under the will of Sir Edward Bunbury. The spur to its construction was a determined local effort to address perceived neglect of the rural area by the Church of England, and a response to the local strength of Nonconformity; there were several Nonconformist chapels in the area. The published accounts of the foundation stone ceremony in the Bury and Norwich Post and Suffolk Herald (April 13, 1875) noted that ‘The inhabitants ... appear to have been uncared for by the Church, both before and after the Reformation…All present seemed united in a spirit of thankful rejoicing at the prospect of a revival of Church work in this long-neglected district’. The foundation stone was laid by Lady Bunbury, and the church consecrated on 05 February 1876 by James Woodford, Bishop of Ely. The Jacobean carved and panelled oak pulpit came from St Mary’s, Mildenhall when it was replaced with a new one designed by Wyatt during that church’s restoration in 1875-6; its sounding board remained at St Mary’s and was converted to a table. At Beck Row, the altar was made by Mrs Clarke of Beck Row. In 1883 a number of stained-glass windows were installed, designed by Charles Elliot, a leading designer at the studio of Abbot and Co in Lancaster; the east window was installed between 1898 and 1906. A lychgate was erected at the entrance to the churchyard in 1908 at a cost of £45.
During the Second World War (1939-45), the church supported servicemen and servicewomen serving at nearby RAF Mildenhall. A Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot was established in the churchyard during the war and a Cross of Sacrifice was dedicated on 04 October 1949. The plot contains 76 graves of airmen and includes the remains of the crew of nine airmen who died when their bomber crashed in the fens while on a training exercise. Inside the church is a further memorial to the men in the form of a propeller blade later recovered from their plane.
Details
Anglican church, built as a chapel of ease between 1875 and 1876 to architectural designs by John Drayton Wyatt.
MATERIALS: The roofs have slate coverings, with a band of lighter coloured slate around mid-way down each slope, timber bargeboards and wrought-iron apex crosses. The bellcote is timber-framed with rendered infill and shingles to its spire. The walls are constructed of flint, with red- and gault-brick detailing, and stone dressings.
PLAN: The church is roughly T-shaped on plan, with a four-bay nave and three-bay chancel laid out on an east-west axis, a porch near the west end of the south elevation, and a single-bay south transept with a small lean-to vestry to its east side.
EXTERIOR: The single-storey church comprises a four-bay nave and three-bay chancel aligned east-west, with a porch near the west end of the south elevation, and a single-bay south transept with a small lean-to vestry to its east side. The roofs are pitched and slate covered, with a band of lighter-coloured slate around mid-way down each slope, timber bargeboards and wrought-iron apex crosses; the roof of the chancel is slightly lower than the nave. The west end of the nave roof features a square-plan bellcote, with a shingle-covered spire, wrought-iron apex cross, and timber-framed walls with timber louvres and rendered panels. The walls of the church are constructed of flint with continuous polychromatic red- and gault-brick bands at sill and springing levels; the bands provide alternating brick voussoirs to openings throughout. The elevations and corners have shallow buttresses with stone dressings, and gault-brick quoins to the corners. The nave and chancel have single and paired lancet windows with alternating voussoirs; some pairs have simple stone cusping. The west gable has a pair of tall lancet windows and a round window above. The east gable has a three-light window with moulded stone tracery comprising trefoil-cusped lights, an octofoil circle over, and hood mould with figurehead stops; below the window the sill band steps down to meet the flanking buttresses. The apex of the gable features a red-brick cross set in the flint walling, and an iron cross finial over. A porch projects from the west end of the south elevation of the nave; it has a slate-covered roof, decorative bargeboard, open timber construction on a low, chamfered-brick plinth, pointed-arched door surround with polychromatic voussoirs, and door with decorative iron strap hinges. The south transept has a circular window of four roundels to the centre of its south gable, and a pair of lancet windows to its west side. The lean-to vestry on the east side of the transept has a small flat-arched 2-light window on its east side, and a pointed-arched door to the south with decorative iron strap hinges.
INTERIOR: The interior of the nave is plastered with two red-brick bands and dressings (painted white but still discernible). The roofs of the nave, chancel and transept are open with exposed scissor-braces. The westernmost end of the nave has a substantial wooden arch on shaped stone corbels, and the chancel has two of these substantial arches on corbels. The floor of the nave has polychromatic encaustic tiling to the central walkway, and wooden floors to the pew sections; the chancel has decorative encaustic floor tiles. The pointed openings to the chancel and transept each have two chamfered arches of polychromatic brickwork with intermittent stone blocks, now painted. The inner chancel arch terminates with a colonette over a moulded and carved stone corbel, and the outer arch has a hood mould and carved figurehead stop. The inner arch of the transept rests on a carved pointed stone corbel. The pointed arch of the east window has a hood moulding terminating in carved figureheads, and a moulded chamfered architrave resting on slender engaged columns. The east side of the transept has a pointed-arch door to a small vestry, which also has a door from the south side of the chancel, and a door to the south of the church; all three doors are ledged with diagonal cross braces, and retain original decorative door furniture. The vestry has an encaustic tiled floor. The main porch door is also ledged with diagonal cross braces and retains original decorative door furniture. Inside the entrance stands an octagonal stone font, now painted, probably designed by J D Wyatt. It features a substantial basin with carved roundels to four faces, set on clustered colonettes and a stepped base.
An early-C17 Jacobean pulpit stands in the north-east corner of the nave, and is of carved and panelled oak with carved scrolled brackets over a moulded stone base (now painted); The pulpit was removed from the parish church of St Mary, Mildenhall when it was replaced with a new one designed by Wyatt during the church’s restoration in 1875-6, and its sounding board has remained at St Mary’s. The wooden altar was crafted and presented by Mrs Clarke of Beck Row; it is freestanding with a frame of two trefoil arches to the front. The altar rails of coloured and gilded metal and oak, chancel stalls of simple Gothic Revival design are all of 1876.
