• Home
• News
• About
• Searching and Browsing
  • Find a Location
  • Find a Feature
  • Find a Word
  • Browse
  • Progress Status
• Resources
• Contact Us

I Location

II General Description

St John's has a clerestoreyed nave with three-bay aisles, the N arcade with a short 12thc. W bay separated from the eastern part of the arcade by a short length of wall. The two E bays are also round-headed, with stiff-leaf capitals of c.1200. The S nave arcade is round-headed too, but the capitals and the aisle date from the restoration of 1842. The chancel has N and S chapels; the N, of two bays has an arcade of c.1300, and is now used for a crèche and vestry. The S of one bay, housing the organ, is 19thc. Both nave doorways are under porches, but the N porch has been extended eastwards and converted for use as a kitchen and lavatories. The W tower is 13thc. in its lower parts, with 14thc. bell-openings and added diagonal buttresses, and a quatrefoil frieze and embattled parapet added at the top. The only feature described below is the N nave arcade.

IV Interior Features

2. Arcades

c. Nave

(i) N arcade

Three bays, round-headed.

Bays 1 and 2 have arches with two orders to N and S; the first order chamfered with plain chamfer stops and chamfered labels on the nave face. Bay 3 is narrower and lower with a plain two-order arch, the outer order dying into the W wall of the nave. Bay 3 is constructed of brown ironstone, in contrast to the pale grey limestone of bays 1 and 2. E respond. The first order is carried on an attached half column with a stiff-leaf block capital, the reeded leaf stems rising from a roll necking and the leaves symmetrical with fat semicircular lobes. The impost is hollow chamfered with a grooved face, chamfered along its lower edge. The outer S order is carried on an en-delit nook-shaft with a stiff-leaf capital, the leaves again with vertical reeded stems rising from a roll necking. The impost is of the same profile as the first order. The outer S order has neither shaft nor capital, and the impost is a simple block, probably a replacement.

Pier 1. The pier is cylindrical and the capital has a circular roll necking, but above this it becomes a cross-shaped quadruple capital, each element decorated with stiff-leaf on long stems rising from the necking, and each of the four cardinal faces centred on a pair of crossing leaves. The impost is also cross-shaped and has the same profile found on the E respond.

Pier 2. The pier is a short length of wall with a respond to the E carrying the arch of bay 2, and to the W a simple, pyramidal concave corbel with a plain chamfered impost to carry the arch of bay 3. The E respond of pier 2 is a more complete version of the E respond of the arcade, i.e. the first order is carried on an attached half-column and the second order arches on the nave and aisle sides are on en-delit nook-shafts. The three capitals are stiff-leaf but of a stylistically later and fleshier form, with slender stems rising from the roll neckings and the leaves forming a canopy below the impost. Imposts are as before. W respond. The first order of bay 3 is carried on a corbel like that on the W side of pier 2; the second order dies into the nave wall.

5. Interior Decoration

c. Miscellaneous

(i) Human head corbel

Laid horizontally as a voussoir in the outer S order of bay 1 of the N nave arcade is a long cuboidal block carved on its end face with a human head. The eyes are round and bulging, the nose triangular and projecting, the mouth wide and straight. Chin and upper lip project like a chimpanzee's. A rough line of beading at the top may represent hair.

VII History

In 1086 Robert held Cranford St John from the Bishop of Coutances. No church or priest was recorded. By the end of the 12thc. the church had been given to St James's abbey, Northampton. The advowson was transferred to the Bishop of Lincoln before 1272.

Dedication to St John recorded in 1300.

Benefice of Cranford (St John the Baptist) with Grafton Underwood and Twywell.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Dalton dates both St Andrew's and St John's to 'the time of King Henry II, when St Hugh of Avalon was Bishop of Lincoln.' If true this would date both churches between 1181 and 1189, but the present author knows of no reason to believe it, especially in view of the fact that the N arcades that are the earliest parts of both buildings look completely different from one another. Pevsner suggests that the W arch of the N arcade may be a reused arch from an earlier tower.

IX Bibliography