The Church of St John the Baptist in

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

. The church was built between 1380 and 1405, but was renovated in the 1850s. It has been designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The tower, which was built around 1480, is high, in four stages with set-back offset corner buttresses. It is thought that the work was supervised by William Wynford, master mason of

Wells Cathedral Wells Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Bath and Wells and the mother church of the diocese of Bath and Wells. There are daily Church of England services in ...

. To meet the growing size of Yeovil and the increased population, work on a second church, Holy Trinity, began on 24 June 1843, and this relieved the pressures on St John's. In 1863, shortage of space in the graveyard was alleviated by the opening of the Preston Road cemetery. The church is capped by openwork balustrading matching the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

s which are from the 17th century. Major reconstruction work was undertaken from 1851 to 1860. The tower has two-light late 14th century windows on all sides at bell-ringing and bell-chamber levels, the latter having fine pierced stonework grilles. There is a stair turret to the north-west corner, with a weather vane termination. Among the fourteen bells are two dating from 1728 and made by Thomas Bilbie of the Bilbie family in

Chew Stoke Chew Stoke is a small village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the affluent Chew Valley, in Somerset, England, about south of Bristol and 10 miles north of Wells, Somerset, Wells. It is at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, ...

. Another from the same date, the "Great Bell", was recast in 2013, from to . Because of the state of some of the external masonry the church has been added to the Heritage at Risk Register. Judas Iscariot in Stained Glass Depiction

Judas Iscariot in Stained Glass Depiction

Unusually, the

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows include a depiction of a lone

Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of sil ...

with a dark halo. Inside the church is a brass reading desk originally made in East Anglia. The parish is part of a

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

with St Andrew, Yeovil, in the Diocese of Bath and Wells. A Member of the South West Gospel Partnership, it has an evangelical character.

The Chantry

In 1573, the Chantry of St Mary the Virgin in the churchyard of the parish church was fitted out as a schoolroom by the parish. This developed into a

charity school Charity schools, sometimes called blue coat schools, or simply the Blue School, were significant in the history of education in England. They were built and maintained in various parishes by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants to ...

. In 1855, the schoolroom was demolished and replaced by a new building next to the churchyard, also called the Chantry,Daniel Vickery, ''A Sketch of the Town of Yeovil'' (1856)
pp. 35–40
/ref> which had feoffees who appointed a

schoolmaster A schoolmaster, or simply master, is a male school teacher. The usage first occurred in England in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. At that time, most schools were one-room or two-room schools and had only one or two such teacher ...

. When the old schoolroom was demolished, it was estimated to date from the reign of

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

, and some of its features, including two chimneypieces, were salvaged and built into the new Chantry, while the roof structure was copied. By stages, the charity school morphed into Yeovil Grammar School, which closed in 1907 with the retirement of its schoolmaster.L. C. Hayward
THE YEOVIL CHARITY SCHOOL – (PART 3 OF 3)
in ''Chronicle: Yeovil Archaeological and Local History Society'', April 1987, pp. 134-136

References

External links

St John's, Yeovil
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeovil, John the Baptist 14th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in South Somerset Grade I listed churches in Somerset

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in Somerset Grade I listed buildings in South Somerset

The Chantry

See also

References

External links