Colston Bassett St John the Divine

Official Listing Description

SK63SE

4/3

1.12.65

COLSTON BASSETT

CHURCH GATE
(east side)

Church of St John the Divine

Grade II

Church. 1892 by A W Brewill for Robert Millington Knowles of Colston Bassett Hall. Ashlar. Blue slate roof. Cruciform plan with tower and spire over the crossing. 3-bay nave with clerestory, low lean-to aisles and south porch, single-bay chancel and single-bay north and south transepts. Perpendicular style. 3-light square-headed aisle windows, other windows 3-light except the 4-light east window all with Perpendicular tracery. Dated cast-iron rainwater heads. The square tower has diagonal buttresses and each face has two 2-light, louvred, bell-chamber openings. Crenellated parapet with corner and intermediate piers. Tall, slender octagonal spire with lucarnes near the top. Interior: 3-bay north and south arcades on short round piers with heavily foliated capitals. In the spandrels, finely carved winged angels with musical instruments support engaged colonnettes which support the arch-bracing to the two traceried and brattished principal roof trusses. Oak-panelled box pew at west end with elaborate canopy. A tablet by the south door commemorates the erection of the church by the squire, Robert Millington Knowles, in memory of his eldest son John Haslam Knowles, died August 15th 1890 aged 21 years, and his wife, Alice Catherine Knowles, died March 1892 aged 39 years. In the south chapel is a marble monument erected by Lord and Lady Crawshaw in memory of their daughter, Alice Catherine Knowles, died March 1892, a well carved life size figure of an angel pointing to a cross on a simple background. Also in the chapel, an early octagonal font with plain shields and a brattished rim, possibly from the old church of St Mary (q.v.). The building is notable for its high standard of ashlar work. An important village site. N Pevsner. The Buildings of England, 1979.

Listing NGR: SK6998133265