The Church of St John the Evangelist, also known as St John's, 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, ...

church, in the

Kates Hill Kates Hill, or Kate's Hill, is a residential area in Dudley, West Midlands, England. History Kates Hill was the scene of chaos in 1648 when parliamentarians used it as their base in the Civil War against King Charles I. As a result, many ro ...

area of

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

, England. It opened in 1840 and closed in 2002 on safety grounds.St Johns Church Preservation Group
Retrieved 18 December 2016. The church reopened in 2016. It was

Grade II listed 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, H ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

on 21 May 2009.

History

Two churches were built in Dudley at the same time and to similar designs by William Bourne; St John's and

St James's St James's is a district of Westminster, and a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End of London, West End. The area was once part of the northwestern gardens and parks of St. James's Palace and much of ...

, at Eve Hill. It was built when Kates Hill was still a relatively rural area, although it was soon a dense residential area following the construction of houses occupied by workers employed in local industry during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

. The area became even more built up during the 1920s and 1930s when

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

was built nearby. In the years after the church's closure, "St John's Church Preservation Group", whose patron is local historian Professor

Carl Chinn Carl Steven Alfred Chinn (born 6 September 1956) is an English historian, author and radio presenter whose working life has been devoted to the study and popularisation of the city of Birmingham. He broadcast a programme on the BBC News, BBC fr ...

, campaigned for the church to be repaired and reopened. The St John's Church Preservation Group became leaseholders of the church on 27 July 2016, and in August it was opened to the public for the first time since 2002. It was announced that the church would be open daily from 12 September 2016, so that visitors can see the restoration work take place.Group's delight after church doors are opened
Dudley News. Retrieved 18 December 2016. On 27 July 2018, the first service in the church in 15 years was held, led by the Rector of Dudley, Rev Robert Barlow.St John's Church holds first service in 15 years
Dudley News, 30 July 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2019.

Graveyard

The church's

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

is the burial place of the boxer

William Perry William Perry may refer to: Business * William H. Perry (businessman) (1832–1906), American businessman and entrepreneur * William Perry (Queensland businessman) (1835–1891), businessman and politician in Queensland, Australia Politics an ...

, known as 'The Tipton Slasher', who was champion of England, 1850–5; also of Marion Richardson (1892–1946), educator and author of books on penmanship and handwriting.

References

External links

St Johns Church Preservation Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudley, St John's Church Church of England church buildings in the West Midlands (county) St John's Church Churches completed in 1840 1840 establishments in England Grade II listed churches in the West Midlands (county)