Description

SE31SE ROYSTON CHURCH STREET
(north side),
Royston
2/79 Church of
St. John the Baptist
I

Church. Predominantly C15 in three building phases, but incorporating work
of C14 which remains in the walling of the north nave and chancel aisles.
Restored 1867-9 by Pearson. Very deeply-coursed ashlar. Stone slate roof.
West tower, 4-bay nave, 3-bay chancel both with buttressed lean-to aisles,
south porch. Perpendicular style. Square 4-stage tower with diagonal buttresses.
Moulded west doorway with 3-light window above. The third stage has a 5-sided
oriel window with cusped lights which have shields below, and a pyramidal roof.
Louvred, transomed belfry openings. Gargoyles, crenellated parapet and crocketed
pinnacles. Nave: clerestorey bays are divided by slender buttresses which are
diagonally-set to bays 2 and 4, bay 1 being slightly later. 2-light cusped
clerestorey windows with arched heads and hoodmoulds linked by a band. Gargoyles,
crenellated parapet and crocketed pinnacles. 3-light south aisle windows with
cusped lights and shallow-arched heads. 2-light north aisle windows with cusped
Y-tracery. 3-light chancel aisle windows with Perpendicular tracery. 4-light
east window with Decorated flamboyant tracery probably a C19 restoration.

Interior: 4-bay north and south arcade, bay 1 being cut out of solid wall, the
rest on 8-sided lozenge-shaped piers and with cambered arches. 3-bay north
chancel arcade, 2-bay south chancel arcade on octagonal piers with rosette
decoration to the capitals. Spiral stair at west end of north aisle and to
earlier west tower.

Excellent panelled roof to nave and aisles, with moulded beams and decorative
bosses. Chancel roof panelled but plain with brattished wall plate. Chapel
roofs panelled with bosses. Decorated, ogee-headed vestry door. Cusped, arched
piscina. Low, brattished, panelled oak screen between chancel and south chapel.
Similar screen to west of south chapel. Rood stair at east end of north aisle.
Perpendicular octagonal font with traceried panelled sides. Excellent monument
to Sandfoord (Sandford) Nevile 1672 of Chevet: a black marble slab on a stone
base with iron railings, 4 white marble putti support a further black marble
slab which bears the inscription. Near the south door is a Rococo wall memorial
to Henry Broadhead, 1754 consisting of a black obelisk ground with a white marble
putto on an inscribed cartouche with floral and foliage support; below are 3 cherubs
heads with wings.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, 1967.

P. F. Ryder, Report for South Yorkshire Archaeology Service, January/February 1984.

Rev. J. G. H. Wilkinson, A Short Guide to the Parish Church of Royston, 1981.

B. Kemp, English Church Monuments, 1980.

Listing NGR: SE3642611242

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St John the Baptist at Wikipedia
• Church of St John the Baptist official website
• Wikidata Q17524540

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6