The Church of St John the Evangelist is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

church in

Clevedon Clevedon (, ) is an English seaside town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 i ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England. Designed by

William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was born in Lon ...

, it was built in 1876–78 at the expense of Sir Arthur Elton and has been a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since 1976.

History

St John's was built as the parish church of the newly formed ecclesiastical parish of South Clevedon, which separated from Clevedon in February 1876 as a result of a rapidly growing population. The church and its vicarage was built at the sole expense of Sir Arthur Elton of

Clevedon Court Clevedon Court is a manor house on Court Hill in Clevedon, North Somerset, England, dating from the early 14th century. It is owned by the National Trust and is designated as a Grade I listed building. The house was built and added to over man ...

and he commissioned

to draw up the designs. Elton also provided an annual endowment of £100. The foundation stone was laid by the

Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of Do ...

, the Right Rev.

Lord Arthur Hervey Lord Arthur Charles Hervey (20 August 1808 – 9 June 1894) was an English bishop who served as Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1869 to 1894. He was usually known by his aristocratic courtesy title, "Lord", rather than the style appropriate to ...

, on 19 October 1876, and construction was carried out by the contractor, Mr. William Restall of Bisley. While the church was being built, temporary services were held in some adjacent farm buildings, which received the name "Barn Church". The completed church was consecrated by the Bishop of Bath and Wells on 30 April 1878. Elton also founded St John's National School in 1879. It was rebuilt in 1889, and became a library when a replacement school was opened in 1991. St John's church hall was built in the 1920s.

Architecture

St John's is built of local stone, with dressings in

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

and tiles on the roof, in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. It was designed to accommodate 500 persons and made up of a nave, north and south aisles, chancel, north and south transepts, vestry and a south-west tower, with six (originally five) bells. A second vestry and new porch was added in 1883–84. The chancel and nave has a low clerestory with small windows. The flooring is paved with encaustic and plain tiles, and the lower region of the interior walls of the nave and aisles lined with Staffordshire tiles. The chancel's walls and reredos were built using Devonshire and other marbles and Bath stone. The centre of the reredos has a marble cross, surrounded by four Evangelistic emblems. It was obscured by wood panelling until the 1990s. The church's windows have middle pointed tracery and there is a rose window in the north transept.

Heaton, Butler and Bayne Heaton, Butler and Bayne were an English firm who produced stained-glass windows from 1862 to 1953. History Clement Heaton (1824–82) Fleming, John & Hugh Honour. (1977) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. '' London: Allen Lane, p. 371. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

supplied the stained glass of the chancel's five-light window and south transept's east window. The pulpit and choir fittings are made of oak and walnut wood. The organ was built by

Henry Willis & Sons Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other countries. Five generations of the Willis family served as principals of th ...

and gifted by Mr T. Sheldon. In 1909, the stone arch of the interior was replaced by a girder and iron screen, owing to subsidence issues. The work was carried out by C. S. Hare.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Church of St John the Evangelist, Clevedon
St. John the Evangelist Church website
Churches in Somerset Grade II* listed churches in Somerset Church of England church buildings in Somerset William Butterfield buildings Grade II* listed buildings in North Somerset