HUXLOE HUNDRED cranfordst. jomn 



The church o( ST. JOHN consists o{ 

 CHURCH chancel, 28 ft. 3 in. by 12 ft. 10 in., 

 with north chapel and vestry, clear- 

 storied nave of three bays 38 ft. by 13 ft. 10 in., 

 north and south aisles, north and south porches, and 

 west tower 8 ft. 6 in. square, all these mcisurcments 

 being internal. The north aisle is 1 1 ft. wide, the 

 south aisle 10 ft. 6 in., the width across nave and 

 aisles being 39 ft. 2 in. The chapel is structurally a 

 continuation of the north aisle, with the vestry at its 

 east end, and covers the chancel its full length. The 

 south aisle had been taken down 

 before Bridges' time (d. 1724), but was 

 rebuilt in 1842,*' and a south porch 

 added ; in 1880 the aisle was extended 

 eastward about half tlie length of the 

 chapel to form an organ chamber, and 

 the chancel restored. There was a 

 general restoration in 1887. Bridges, 

 at the beginning of the 1 8th century, 

 records that the stump of a spire was 

 then standing ; the spire had ' fallen 

 down some years ago ' and broken in 

 upon the roof of the church. It has 

 never been rebuilt. 



The building throughout is of rub- 

 ble, with plain parapets, and the walls 

 are plastered internally. The chancel 

 has a high-pitched tiled roof, but the 

 roofs of the nave and aisles are leaded. 



The nave arcades arc the oldest part 

 of the building, dating from the end of 

 the 1 2th century. The north arcade 

 consists of two wide round-headed 

 arches with a narrower and lower 

 one at the west end. The two eastern 

 arches were cut through the wall of an earlier church 

 and are of almost elliptical form, of two orders, 

 the outer square and the inner slightly chamfered, 

 springing from a cylindrical pier and from half-round 

 responds, with separate attached shafts carrying 

 the outer order. The circular moulded capitals of 

 pier and responds are elaborately carved with stiff-leaf 

 foliage in low relief, and the abaci follow the cross plan 

 of the arch orders ; the base of the pier is cut away. 

 The work dates from c. 1 190, and a few years later the 

 nave appears to have been extended westward by the 

 addition of the smaller*^ bay, the whole of the south 

 wall taken down, and an entirely new arcade con- 

 structed with a narrow and lower west bay to corre- 

 spond with that on the north. The added bay of the 

 north arcade has a round arch of two square orders on 

 plain corbels, and is of ironstone. The south arcade 

 is all of one build, with round arches of two orders 

 springing from piers and responds with richly carved 

 capitals similar to those opposite. The piers differ in 

 section, the eastern one being a plain cylinder and the 

 other a square with four attached shafts ; the responds 

 are similar to those on the north side. 



As thus altered in the last years of the 1 2th century, 

 the church was not very much smaller than the present 

 building, with an aisled nave and a chancel somewhat 



shorter than the existing one. The chancel was 

 rebuilt and lengthened in the course of the 13th cen- 

 tury, and the chapel added c. 1290. The tower 

 belongs to the earlier part of the 13th century, but 

 was heightened a century later (c. 1320), vviicn the 

 clearstory was added and the north aisle recon- 

 structed. 



The chancel is substantially of the 13th century 

 with an east window of three trefoiled lights and 

 beautiful geometrical tracery, c. 1290. In the south 

 W.1II is an inserted 1 41)1 -century square-headed window 



■ WI Cem URY m 1421 Cent. 

 a C.I190-1200 E] I51!J CtNT. 

 ■1 13111 Century .□ Modern 



inic.l290 



Plan of St. John's Church, Cranford 



of two trefoiled lights, and the north wall is pierced 

 at its west end by a late 13th-century arcade of two 

 chamfered arches on an octagonal pier and half-round 

 responds with moulded capitals and bases, opening to 

 the chapel.^^ On the south side there is a modern 

 arch to the organ chamber. The I3th-centur) 

 chancel arch is of two chamfered orders with hood, 

 the inner order on moulded corbels. The upper 

 steps of the rood-loft stair and the loft doorway 

 remain on the north side of the arch. The insertion 

 of the rood stair at the back of the north-east respond 

 weakened the chancel arch and a big buttress of two 

 stages was afterwards added within the aisle. Over 

 the south window of the chancel a panel inscribed 

 ' I.L. 1692 ' probably indicates some repair or recon- 

 struction in that year. 



The north aisle has two square-headed 14th-century 

 windows of two trefoiled lights, one on each side of 

 the porch, and there is a similar window in the north 

 wall of the chapel, but another of three lights further 

 east is a late 15th-century insertion. The north 

 doorway is modern. In the north aisle is a restored 

 wall recess with segmental chamfered arch. 



There are three clearstory windows on each side, 

 the two outer ones being trefoiled openings within 

 curved triangular labels like those at St. Andrew's 



" It wa« built by the Rev. Sir George 

 Robinson a» a memorial to two of 

 hii children, who died respectively in 

 1836 and 1841. The porch wai built 

 ' to rcKmble a north porch recently 



added ' : Chs. Archd. NorihampI, (1849), 

 '73- 



" It is about 5 ft. 9 in. wide, the cattern 

 baji being about 13 ft. 



*• The cast respond springs from a very 



191 



high and roughly moulded plinth. ' Each 



kpring of the arches is higher thaa that 

 next to it to the west, though the points 

 of the arches are of the same height ' : 

 C')s. Archd. Nortbampt. 172. 



