St John's was designed by the Lancaster architects Austin and Paley, and paid for by Victor Cavendish. It replaces an older church built in 1777 on a site nearby. The foundation stone was laid in 1897 by Lady Evelyn Cavendish, and the church was consecrated in 1900.[3] Its original estimated cost was £8,000, but it finally cost £12,000 (equivalent to £1,640,000 in 2023).[4][5]
Architecture
Exterior
The church is constructed in pale sandstone, dressed to be almost smooth, with ashlar dressings and bands. It is roofed in sandstone flags, other than the apse, which has a lead roof.[3] The architectural style is Romanesque.[6] Its plan consists of a four-baynave with a clerestory, north and south three-bay aisles, a west tower, a south porch, and a chancel with a chapel to the north, an organ chamber to the south, and a semicircular apse to the east with a vestry beneath.[2] The church stands on a sloping site, with the tower at the top, and the rest of the church stepped down the slope.[3] The tower is in three stages, with buttresses, a corbelledcopedparapet, and a saddleback roof with gables on the east and west sides. On the west side of the tower are paired lancet windows in the bottom stage, a round-headed lancet window with zigzag moulding in the middle stage, and paired louvred bell openings in the top stage. On the south side of the tower is a porch with two open quatrefoils in its gable. Above this is a lancet window and a single bell opening. The north side has a gabled stair turret, a lancet window, and a single bell opening. On the east side is a pair of bell openings. There are clock faces on all sides. The windows in the body of the church are round-headed lancets, single or in pairs. Each bay of the clerestory contains a two-light window.[2]
Interior
The three-bay arcade is carried on quatrefoil piers.[2] All the furnishings were designed by the architects, and are "very good in a quiet way".[3] Also in the nave are creed and commandment boards dating from the 18th century, and the royal arms of George III. In the chancel is a trefoil-headed sedilia.[2] All the stained glass is by Shrigley and Hunt, dating from about 1901 to 1927, the newest window depicting Saint Cuthbert preaching.[3] The organ has two manuals; its builder is not known.[7] There is a ring of eight bells, all cast by John Taylor & Co; four date from 1900, two from 1949, and two from 2008.[8]
^Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, pp. 141, 143, 242, ISBN978-1-84802-049-8
^Price, James (1998), Sharpe, Paley and Austin: A Lancaster Architectural Practice 1836–1942, Lancaster: Centre for North-West Regional Studies, pp. 93–94, ISBN1-86220-054-8
