Building record 15531 - Church of St John the Baptist, Knutsford

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 1388324 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Church of St John the Baptist: Grade II* Listed.
Parish church. 1741-4. By J Garlive. Chancel 1879 by A Darbyshire. Brick with stone dressings and slate roof.
PLAN: west tower, galleried nave expressed as 2 storeys, shallow chancel.
EXTERIOR: 4-stage west tower with west doorway with round-arched window over, round-arched bell chamber light in upper stage, and clock below. Modillion brackets to parapet, which is swept between urns on angles. 2-storeyed nave with stone plinth, angle quoins and string course, the parapet alternating solid and balustraded panels. 4 round-arched upper windows, 3 below, with doorway to SW in pedimented case with rusticated architrave, and round-arched inner door. Similar NW doorway. Tripartite window to shallow chancel, which is flanked to the north by organ chamber possibly a somewhat later addition, and by late C20 work to the south.
INTERIOR: nave with classical arcade of 4 bays, Tuscan columns on high bases carrying semicircular arches. Gallery to west, north and south with wood panelling. High console brackets articulate squared chancel arch. Low stone wall with cast-iron rail and integral wood and cast-iron pulpit divides the chancel. Wood panelling to chancel probably a late C19 addition, a classical style with dado and cornice, divided by fluted pilasters.
STAINED GLASS: triple window to east, with stained glass of 1861, representing the Baptism of Christ. Windows in north and south aisles form a series in a similar Renaissance style depicting Old and New Testament scenes, dated 1868, 1895, 1919 and 1921 and signed, Heaton Butler and Bayne.

<2> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2013, Church of St John the Baptist, Knutsford, Cheshire: Heritage Impact Assessment, R4573 (Client Report). SCH9172.

The Church of St John the Baptist is a dignified and well proportioned Georgian church designed by the local architect/mason John Gatlive. The church stands on high ground and is seen from several locations within the town. It is surrounded by a peaceful and attractive churchyard with trees and monuments, enclosed by a low boundary wall.

It consists of a five -bay nave with aisles and galleries, a west tower and chancel. The chancel was extended and refurnished in 1879 by Alfred Darbyshire (1839-1908), a Manchester architect who was noted as a theatre designer. Although his extension was carried out in a classical design, his furnishings at St John’s are heavy and dark, with an abundance of detail in contrast with the lightness and elegance of the original interior. It is probable that Darbyshire was responsible for re-glazing all the windows to the aisles and the gallery, and for re-setting the brightly coloured east window dating from the 1860s in the newly extended chancel. The aisle and gallery windows had originally been fitted with clear rectangular leaded panes, as in the first floor west tower window, which survives, but with the exception of this one, all the other windows were replaced with octagons of obscure glass and coloured borders. These reduced the amount of light coming into the church, even before the Heaton Butler and Bayne stained glass windows were installed between the 1890s and 1920s. The chancel furnishings were altered again by Frank Oakley and Charles Nicholson in the 1930s including a new altar and repositioning of the pulpit. In 1970 the west end was reordered to create a group of meeting rooms and a narthex by walling across the nave and enclosing part of the area below the north and south galleries. When the parish rooms were constructed in the 1990s by Graham Holland, the War Memorial Chapel was relocated from the north to the south aisle and Darbyshire’s north-east vestry was removed.