Old_St_John_the_Baptist's_Church,_Pilling

Old St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling

Old St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling

Church in Lancashire, England

Old St John the Baptist's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Pilling, Lancashire, England. It stands 160 yards (150 m) to the south of the new church, also dedicated to St John the Baptist.[1] The church is "an unusual survival of a small Georgian church".[2] It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building,[2] and it is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[3]

Quick Facts OS grid reference, Location ...
Church interior, looking towards pulpit

History

The village was originally served by a small medieval chapel (28 ft (8.5 m) by 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m)), serviced until the Dissolution by the canons of Cockersand Abbey. In 1716 the parishioners of Pilling petitioned the Bishop of Chester for a new church.[4] In response, St John's was built in 1717. The only structural alteration since then was the raising of the walls in 1813 to accommodate galleries.[3] It became redundant when the new church was built in 1887.[2] The church was vested in the Trust on 1 August 1986.[5] St John's is termed a chapel, rather than a church, due to its being a parochial chapelry in the parish of Garstang, served by a perpetual curate as opposed to a vicar.[4]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in red sandstone, with a plinth, chamfered quoins, and other dressings in grey sandstone. The roof is slate.[2] It is a simple building, long and low.[3] On the west gable is a double bellcote. The church has five bays. On the south front is a single row of windows with round heads and a single chamfered mullion. In the westernmost bay is a door over which is a smaller similar window, but with no mullion. The door has a keystone inscribed with the date 1717, over which is a sandstone sundial with a plaque including the date 1766. The east window is similar to the windows in the south wall, but with two mullions. The north wall has two tiers of five windows; the lower windows have flat lintels, and the upper row consists of lunette windows.

Interior

The interior has a flat plaster ceiling.[2] The walls are whitewashed and the church is floored with stone flags.[6] There are galleries on the north and west sides, carried on Tuscan-style columns, and on the ground floor there are fixed simple oak benches, box pews (one of which carries the date 1719), and a two-decker pulpit. The sandstone font dates from the 18th century and is in the shape of an urn.[2] The Royal coat of arms of King George I dated 1719 are displayed in a hatchment.[6] Before the alteration of the roof in 1813, the chapel was open to the rafters. The pulpit was originally three-tier and was located against the north wall.[4]

External features

The churchyard contains the war graves of two soldiers and a merchant sailor of World War I.[7]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Old St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling.

References

  1. [1]
    Lancashire Churches: Pilling, St John, Tony Boughen, archived from the original on 18 May 2010, retrieved 8 September 2010
  2. [2]
    Historic England, "Old Church of St John Baptist, Pilling (1073080)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 31 August 2013
  3. [3]
    Church of St John the Baptist, Pilling, Lancashire, Churches Conservation Trust, retrieved 18 October 2016
  4. [4]
    Weston, Dr. D., (2006), St John the Baptist's Old Church, Pilling, Lancashire, The Churches Conservation Trust, 2nd edition, printed 1989
  5. [5]
    Diocese of Blackburn: All Schemes (PDF), Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2010, p. 4, retrieved 3 April 2011
  6. [6]
    Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 502, ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9
  7. [7]
    PILLING (ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST) OLD CHURCHYARD, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, retrieved 16 February 2013
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