St John's Church, in full 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 the Boreham area in the southeast of the town of

Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-century Minster Church of S ...

, Wiltshire, England. It was built in 1865 and is 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 ...

History and features

Four Archangels, St John's Church, Warminster, Wiltshire

The church was begun in 1865 due to the overcrowding of the parish church of St Denys, and was completed in the same year. The site is about southeast of the town centre, in a field called Picked Acre alongside Boreham Road, which had been given by William Temple of

Bishopstrow House Bishopstrow Hotel & Spa is a late-Georgian English country house standing near the B3414 (Salisbury road) in the parish of Bishopstrow, about a mile east of Warminster, in Wiltshire in southern England. History A manor house was built at Bishops ...

in 1859. The Rev J. E. Phillips, vicar of St Denys', opened a building fund which in less than one year raised £2,700, an amount greater than the building's eventual cost of £1,935. The church was designed by London architect

George Edmund Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccle ...

in 1864–1865, in

Early English style English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

. Given the relatively ordinary-looking exterior, the interior is quite unexpected. The tiling throughout,

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 ...

, low

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

screen wall,

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

, oak choir stalls and free-standing nave benches were completed before 1868. The reredos has a gabled centre with

Crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

ion. The

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

in the chancel was made by

Clayton and Bell Clayton and Bell was one of the most prolific and proficient British workshops of stained-glass windows during the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. The partners were John Richard Clayton (1827–1913) and Alfred Bell (1832� ...

. The bellcote over the east end of the nave has one bell. The

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s and

opus sectile ''Opus sectile'' is a form of pietra dura popularized in the ancient and medieval Roman world where materials were cut and inlaid into walls and floors to make a picture or pattern. Common materials were marble, mother of pearl, and glass. The ...

murals of scriptural scenes on the wall were designed by

Charles Ponting Charles Edwin Ponting, F.S.A., (1850–1932) was a Gothic Revival architect who practised in Marlborough, Wiltshire. Career Ponting began his architectural career in 1864 in the office of the architect Samuel Overton. He was agent for Meux br ...

and painted by

James Powell and Sons The firm of James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, were London-based English glassmakers, leadlighters and stained glass window manufacturers. As ''Whitefriars Glass'', the company existed from the 17th century, but became well ...

in 1911–1915. These striking

turn-of-the-century Turn of the century, in its broadest sense, refers to the transition from one century to another. The term is most often used to indicate a distinctive time period either before or after the beginning of a century or both before and after. Ac ...

images are matched by the mosaics of the four archangels on the east wall in the chancel, behind the reredos. A western

baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

was added by Ponting in 1925–1926. The church was recorded as Grade II* listed in 1978.

Parish

St John's was built as a

chapel-of-ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...

for St Denys' church. In 1956 the area around St John's was added to

Bishopstrow Bishopstrow is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the southeastern edge of the town of Warminster. The village is about from the town centre, south of the old Warminster to Salisbury road, formerly the A36, now the B3414. ...

parish, and that parish was renamed Bishopstrow and Boreham. A group ministry was established in 1974 to cover this parish,

Upton Scudamore Upton Scudamore is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies about north of the town of Warminster and about the same distance south of Westbury. The parish includes the hamlet of Halfway. The village occupies a ridge w ...

and the Warminster churches of St Denys and Christ Church; this continues today as the River Were benefice, although Christ Church is now separate.

References

External links

A Church Near You entry
* {{Commons category-inline

Churches completed in 1865 Gothic Revival church buildings in England G. E. Street buildings Warminster