St John the Evangelist's Church, Warrington

St John the Evangelist's Church, Warrington
St John the Evangelist's Church, Warrington
St John the Evangelist's Church, Warrington Location in Cheshire
Coordinates: 53°21′45″N 2°36′18″W / 53.3626°N 2.6049°W
OS grid reference	SJ 598,853
Location	Walton, Warrington, Cheshire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	St John the Evangelist, Walton
History
Dedication	John the Evangelist
Consecrated	1885
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	23 December 1983
Architect(s)	Paley and Austin
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Completed	1885
Construction cost	£17,500
Specifications
Spire height	130 feet (40 m)
Materials	Red sandstone with Westmorland green slate roofs
Administration
Parish	St John the Evangelist, Walton
Deanery	Great Budworth
Archdeaconry	Chester
Diocese	Chester
Province	York
Clergy
Priest(s)	Revd Dr John E Harries
Laity
Reader(s)	Ian Jerrard-Dinn
Churchwarden(s)	Heather Chatten, Doreen Worsely

St John the Evangelist's Church is in Walton, Warrington, Cheshire, England. It was built as a private estate church towards the end of the 19th century but is now an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Great Budworth.^[1] The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.^[2]

History

The church was built in 1882–83 for the brewer Sir Gilbert Greenall of Walton Hall. It was designed by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin, the cost of its construction being £17,500 (equivalent to £1,590,000 in 2015).^[3][4]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is built in red snecked sandstone with Westmorland green slate roofs. Its plan is cruciform with a three-bay nave, north and south transepts, a two-bay chancel, a south vestry, and a south porch. The tower is in four stages with chequerwork in its third stage, a recessed octagonal spire and an octagonal north west stair turret. The porch consists of an oak frame on a 6 feet (2 m) sandstone plinth. The church is in Decorated style.^[2]

Interior

The nave and chancels have barrel roofs. On the south side of the chancel is sedilia. The reredos contains a carving of the Crucifixion. The font is marble, and the pulpit is built of oak on a stone base. The floors are tiled.^[2] The stained glass includes a window in the south transept dated 1929 by Morris and Co. and elsewhere by Shrigley and Hunt.^[5]

Appraisal

The church was listed at Grade II* on 23 December 1983. Grade II* is the middle of the three gradings designated by English Heritage, and is given to "particularly important buildings of more than special interest".^[6] The authors of the Buildings of England series describe it as a "glorious estate church, exquisitely detailed and composed", and consider that the tower is one of Austin's best.^[5]

External features

The lych gate dating from around 1885 is built in red sandstone with a Westmorland green slate roof and half-timbered gables on brackets. It was built at the expense of Sir Gilbert Greenall and was designed by Paley and Austin. It is listed at Grade II.^[5][7]

See also

• Grade I and II* listed buildings in Warrington
• Listed buildings in Walton, Cheshire
• List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin

References

1. St John the Evangelist, Walton, Church of England, retrieved 11 February 2011
2. Historic England, "Church of St John the Evangelist, Walton (1139352)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 July 2012
3. UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
4. Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, pp. 101–102, 233, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
5. Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 629, ISBN 0-300-10910-5
6. Listed Buildings, Historic England, retrieved 7 April 2015
7. Historic England, "Lychgate to Church of St John the Evangelist, Walton (1136037)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 July 2012