- St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling
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St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling 
St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling, from the northeastLocation in Lancashire
St John the Baptist's Church, PillingCoordinates: 53°55′49″N 2°54′39″W / 53.9303°N 2.9107°W OS grid reference SD 402 486 Location Pilling, Lancashire Country England Denomination Anglican Website St John the Baptist, Pilling History Dedication John the Baptist Architecture Status Parish church Functional status Active Heritage designation Grade II* Designated 17 April 1967 Architect(s) Paley and Austin Architectural type Church Style Gothic Revival Groundbreaking 1886 Completed 1887 Construction cost £7,000 (£580,000 as of 2011) Specifications Materials Sandstone, slate roofs Administration Parish Stalmine, St James Deanery Garstang Archdeaconry Lancaster Diocese Blackburn Province York St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling, is located in the village of Pilling, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Garstang, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the diocese of Blackburn.[1] The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.[2] Its benefice is combined with those of St James, Stalmine, and St Mark, Eagland Hill.[1] It is described as "a fine example of the late Gothic Revival church with much originality in detail".[2]
Contents
History
The church was built in 1886–87 to replace the older Church of St John the Baptist on a site some 100 metres (109 yd) to the north of the old church. It was designed by the Lancaster firm of Paley and Austin at a cost of £7,000 (£580,000 as of 2011).[3] Commenting on the church, the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner wrote "The fertility of Paley & Austin remains astonishing".[4]
Architecture
Exterior
St John's is constructed in snecked sandstone rubble with slate roofs. Its plan consists of a five-bay nave with clerestory and north and south aisles, a south porch, a two-bay chancel with a north vestry forming a transept, a south organ chamber, and a west tower with a recessed spire. The tower has angle buttresses and a battlemented parapet.[2] The parapet is decorated in flushwork, using mauve and beige sandstone, rather than the usual flushwork materials of flint and stone; this decoration is continued along the clerestory.[4] In the top stage of the tower are two-light bell openings with pointed heads containing tracery. The west window has eight lights, and also has a pointed head containing tracery. The south porch is in two storeys and has angle buttresses; it is also decorated in flushwork. The aisle windows have three lights, and the east window has five lights with Perpendicular tracery.[2]
Interior
Internally, the sandstone masonry is exposed and there is an open timber roof. The arcades are carried on octagonal piers. In the chancel is a double sedilia and a piscina. The stained glass in the east and west windows dates from the late 19th century.[2] In the northwest aisle is a window depicting Saint Margaret made by Shrigley and Hunt in 1911, and in the south aisle is a window by A. L. Moore depicting Boaz, Ruth and Naomi.[4] The two-manual organ was built in 1903, but its builder is uncertain. It was cleaned and restored in 1998 by David Wells of Liverpool.[5] The ring consists of six bells, all cast by John Taylor & Co at various dates between 1934 and 1983.[6]
See also
- List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin
References
- ^ a b St John the Baptist, Pilling, Church of England, http://www.achurchnearyou.com/pilling-st-john-the-baptist/, retrieved 8 September 2010
- ^ a b c d e "Church of St John the Baptist, Pilling", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1073081, retrieved 20 May 2011
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
- ^ a b c 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
- ^ Lancashire, Pilling, St. John the Baptist, British Institute of Organ Studies, http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N10943, retrieved 8 September 2010
- ^ Pilling, S John Bapt, Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers, http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=pilling&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=PILLING, retrieved 8 September 2010
Categories:- Church of England churches in Lancashire
- Grade II* listed churches
- Grade II* listed buildings in Lancashire
- Gothic Revival architecture in England
- Religious buildings completed in 1887
- 19th-century Church of England church buildings
- Diocese of Blackburn
- Buildings and structures in Wyre
- Paley and Austin buildings
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