St John the Baptist, Church Lane, Pinner - East end - geograph

St John the Baptist, Pinner, is an Anglican church in Church Lane,

Pinner Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011. Originally a med ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

History

The church was consecrated in 1320, and largely dates from the 14th century. Originally it was a chapel subordinate to the ancient church of St Mary, Harrow on the Hill, forming part of the deanery of Croydon which came under the immediate jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This was because the Archbishop was the Lord of the Manor of Harrow. Over the years St John's grew independent of St Mary's in many ways, but it was not until 1766 that Pinner became a parish independent of Harrow.

Henry James Pye Henry James Pye (; 20 February 1745 – 11 August 1813) was an English poet, and Poet Laureate from 1790 until his death. His appointment owed nothing to poetic achievement, and was probably a reward for political favours. Pye was merely a ...

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

to King

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

, was buried in the church and William Skenelsby, who died at the reputed age of 118 years, was in the churchyard. The church has been Grade II* listed since 1951.

Description

The West Tower and South Porch date from the 15th century. The

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

was designed by Temple Moore, and built in 1911. The stained glass windows are of many designs and ages, including two by Ninian Comper. The edges of the windows were restored by

J. L. Pearson John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficiency ...

in 1879-80, and paid for by A. W. Tooke, a wealthy landowner in Pinner, and the son of William Tooke. Pearson also built the current church roof with gables, replacing an earlier one with attic windows. The south chapel dates from 1859, and was enlarged in 1880. Among the church treasures is a 15th-century octagonal baptismal font, altar rails from the 17th century and an oak chest which must predate 1622, as it was recorded that it needed a new lock that year. The font cover dates from 1909. Numerous memorials include one in the church to Sir Christopher Clitherow, a former

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

who owned land on Pinner Hill in the seventeenth century; and an unusual one located in the churchyard, on the south side. It is in the form of a stone

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

with a fake sarcophagus within, and was erected by the eighteenth-century botanist

John Claudius Loudon John Claudius Loudon (8 April 1783 – 14 December 1843) was a Scottish botanist, garden designer and author. He was the first to use the term arboretum in writing to refer to a garden of plants, especially trees, collected for the purpose of ...

in memory of his parents.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinner, John the Baptist Grade II* listed churches in London Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Harrow 14th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in the London Borough of Harrow History of the London Borough of Harrow Diocese of London