St John's Church, Ellel

St John's Church, Ellel

St John's Church, Ellel, from the southwest
St John's Church, Ellel

Location in the City of Lancaster district

Coordinates: 53°59′46″N 2°47′08″W / 53.9961°N 2.7855°W
OS grid reference SD 486,558
Location Church Lane, Ellel, Lancashire
Country England
Denomination Anglican
Churchmanship Central
Website St John the Evangelist, Ellel
History
Dedication Saint John The Evangelist
Architecture
Status Parish church
Functional status Active
Heritage designation Grade II
Designated 2 May 1968
Architect(s) Austin and Paley
Architectural type Church
Style Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking 1906
Completed 1907
Specifications
Materials Sandstone, tiled roof
Administration
Parish St John the Evangelist, Ellel
Deanery Lancaster and Morecambe
Archdeaconry Lancaster
Diocese Blackburn
Province York
Clergy
Assistant priest Rt Revd G S Pearson
Laity
Reader(s) Yvonne Tomlinson
Jean Pearson
Churchwarden(s) Diana Armstrong
Parish administrator Mrs S Gara

St John's Church is in Church Lane, Ellel, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Lancaster and Morecambe, the archdeaconry of Lancaster, and the diocese of Blackburn.[1] The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.[2] The authors of the Buildings of England series describe the appearance of the church as being "decidedly monumental".[3]

History

St John's was a new church built in 1906–07 to replace a church of 1800 located on a different site. It was designed by the Lancaster architects Austin and Paley, and cost about £5,000 (£460,000 in 2015),[4] providing seating for 380 people. The original intention had been to build a spire on the tower but this never transpired.[3][5]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in sandstone rubble, and it has a roof of red tiles. Its plan consists of a nave with a clerestory on the north side only, a north aisle, a south porch, a tower at the crossing with a north transept and vestry, and a chancel. In the south wall of the nave are three windows of three and two lights under segmental heads containing Perpendicular tracery. To the west of the windows is a porch with a doorway under a pointed arch, and a gable surmounted by a cross finial. To the right of the three windows is a smaller two-light window at a higher level, and a doorway. The windows in the north wall of the aisle have two or three lights under flat heads, and the clerestory windows have two lights with elliptical heads under flat lintels. The tower has buttresses on the north and south sides, and a square stair turret on the south side. Also on the south side, in the middle stage, is a window with a pointed head. In the top stage the bell openings have two lights, and on the summit of the tower is a plain coping. In the south wall of the chancel is a two-light window with a segmental head. The east window has five lights.[2] Its tracery is in a mixture of Perpendicular and Decorated styles.[3]

Interior

Inside the church is a six-bay arcade carried on alternating round and octagonal piers. In the chancel is a piscina.[2] The stained glass consists of a scheme by Shrigley and Hunt dating from the early 20th century.[3] The two-manual pipe organ was made by Ainscough of Preston.[6]

External features

The churchyard contains the war grave of a Royal Garrison Artillery soldier of World War I.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ St John The Evangelist, Ellel near Galgate, Church of England, retrieved 3 April 2012
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Historic England, "Church of St John, Ellel (1164237)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 3 April 2012
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 284, ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9
  4. ↑ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2014), "What Were the British Earnings and Prices Then? (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
  5. ↑ Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, pp. 143, 246, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
  6. ↑ Lancashire, Ellel, St. John the Evangelist, Chapel Lane (G01576), British Institute of Organ Studies, retrieved 3 April 2012
  7. ↑ CAMPBELL, C, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, retrieved 13 February 2013