St John the Baptist Church, is in the village of Hartford,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building, and is the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

parish church of Hartford and Greenbank. It is in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Middlewich.

History

The first church on the site was consecrated in 1824. Following this the population grew and the church became too small. In 1873 it was decided that a new and larger church was needed. The new church was designed by John Douglas. The foundation stone was laid on 29 October 1873. The new church was consecrated by William Jacobson, Bishop of Chester, on 24 June 1875. At this time, the church consisted of the chancel and nave with its porches and the foundations of the tower. The tower, also designed by John Douglas, was then added and this was dedicated by William Stubbs, Bishop of Chester, on 14 April 1887. On 20 June 1897 a ring of six bells was dedicated. The total cost of the church was £12,508 (£ in ). In the 1920s a choir vestry was added to the east wall. In 1990 the church pipe organ was replaced by an electronic organ. In 1993 the roof was refurbished and during the following year the pews were replaced by chairs. In 1997–98 an extension was added to the west end of the church to provide extra seating, toilets and a kitchen.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is built in buff sandstone with red sandstone dressings and a red tile roof. Its plan consists of a five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

nave with a

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

, north and south aisles, a two-bay chancel with a vestry to the south and a chapel to the north, north and south porches and a west tower. The tower is in four stages with a stair turret at the southwest corner which rises higher than the tower. The parapet is

embattled A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

. The tower is around high.

Interior

Internally the plaster and wooden

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

depicts the Last Supper in a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

setting. The authors of the '' Buildings of England'' series describe the interior as being "altogether interesting, with a primitive look", commenting in particular that the two sides of the chancel are different. The main entrance to the church is now through the west extension to the church.

External features

The churchyard contains ten war graves of service personnel, three of World War I and seven of World War II.

Present day

The church continues to be an active parish church in the Evangelical tradition, and regular services are held. In addition to Sunday services, the church has a busy mid-week programme and runs a wide variety of groups, cafes and community activities. In October 2009 work started to demolish and replace the church hall. It was replaced by St John's Church Centre, which opened in November 2010. The Church Centre is primarily used for church activities, but is also in frequent use by community and other groups. The parish is within the

conservative evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual expe ...

tradition of the Church of England, and it has passed resolutions to reject the

ordination of women The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...

as presbyters (priests). In the 1990s, its clergy included future

Bishop of Ebbsfleet The Bishop of Ebbsfleet is a suffragan bishop who fulfils the role of a provincial episcopal visitor in the Church of England. From its creation in 1994 to 2022, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet served traditionist Anglo-Catholic parishes that could not ac ...

Rob Munro Robert John Sutherland Munro (born 2 April 1946) is a former New Zealand politician of the National Party, serving as Member of Parliament for Invercargill from 1987 to 1993. Early life Munro was born in Dunedin on 2 April 1946. Military servi ...

History

Architecture

Exterior

Interior

External features

Present day

See also

References

Further reading