St John Baptist And Attached Railings And Gates

early C15 alterations

St Catherine's Chapel originally C12 north chancel aisle altered

Building started in 1115.

© Bikeboy

enlarged mid C15

early/mid C16

The magnificent early Tudor nave, completed in 1530.

© Philip Pankhurst

Lady Chapel c1240, rebuilt mid C15

Chapel of St John the Baptist originally C12 south chancel aisle altered

enlarged mid C14

Trinity Chapel 1430

aisled nave c1120 and c1240, west end of aisles rebuilt early C14 to accommodate tower buttresses, nave rebuilt except west end of aisles 1515-1530

west tower early C15.

St Catherine's Chapel: east gable has offset angle buttress to north, four-light window with panel tracery with four-centred arch head and hoodmould, north wall has four three-light clerestory windows with Tudor arch heads.

Lady Chapel: east gable has offset angle buttresses to north, five-light window with panel tracery with depressed arch head and hoodmould, embattled parapet with blind tracery and crocketed finials, north wall rebuilt c1820 except east window has four three-light pointed windows with panel tracery, to east renewed, largely blocked and different pattern tracery, moulded string with gargoyles and parapet continued from east wall.

Trinity Chapel: east gable wall has one five-light window with panel tracery with Tudor arch head, plinth with moulded top, north east angle buttress continued above embattled parapet with blind tracery as crocketed finial, north wall has four four-light pointed windows with panel tracery and hoodmoulds, plinth with moulded top and offset buttresses continued above embattled parapet with blind tracery as crocketed finials.

octagonal stair turrets to north east and northwest each linked to body of porch at first floor by single-bay bridges with three-light window with panel tracery and square head with embattled parapet with pointed arch beneath to east and west doors to porch in four-centred arch openings, to west pair of panelled doors with date and initials 1635 MS IH

INTERIOR: chancel: east window in mid C13 moulded arch with shafts carrying stiff-leaf capitals, chamfered arches with shafts to late C13 windows to north and south of sanctuary

chancel widened to south c1180 with two bay arcade of which round piers, to west with leaf capital, to east reworked Roman column, survive now with triple chamfered pointed arches, to west infilled by organ

north wall has two bay arcade with double chamfered pointed arches of c1420, mid C14 clerestory windows, two of two lights, one single-light with square heads and cusped lights now partially blocked

chancel arch enlarged to present form mid C14

chancel screen mid C16 below with pierced carving between transom and solid panels beneath has canopy added by Scott, raised 1906 and east side carved.

Sanctuary has carved stone reredos by Scott

north wall has early C20 round-headed doorway into Lady Chapel, remnant of original church and originally external, three bay pointed arcade with hollow mouldings c1450-60 when Chapel extended east on foundation of Chantry of St Catharine and St Nicholas, wall-paintings of this date of St Christopher to north wall and St Catharine to south wall, early C14 wall paintings to west end of north wall

stone fan-vault dated 1508 donated by Abbot John Hakebourne has bosses with his mitre and initials, royal arms and pomegranate for Catharine of Aragon

late C15 oak screen in contemporary four-centred arch on mid C13 bases and lower shafts

sanctuary has reredos of 1905 carved in Oberammergau and painted by William Butchart, communion rails and pavement by Ninian Comper.

Lady Chapel: rebuilt c1450, timber ceiling with carved bosses and corbels

wall paintings to south wall above arcade include Judgement to west

late C15 oak screen in contemporary four-centred arch on mid C13 bases and lower shafts

to west C18 marble font.

Trinity Chapel: constructed from1430, east wall has elaborate reredos with canopied niches, four bay south arcade with piers of four shafts and four hollows surmounted by shield-bearing winged angels and with Yorkist badge of falcon and fetterlock at apex of each moulded pointed opening is echoed to north wall

Nave: rebuilt 1516-30, of six bays with arcade to north and south aisles has tall compound piers with eight shafts with shields borne by demi-angels carrying arms or merchants' marks of contributors to rebuilding, blind traceried panels to east, north and south walls surrounding and below window over chancel arch and below clerestory windows

east wall has to south of chancel arch small round arch now housing Boleyn Cup, perhaps for a recessed altar off a south transept of church of 1120

Garstang Chapel in south east corner of south nave aisle mid C15 chantry chapel enclosed by carved oak screen with original iron closing ring to door

rare C15 stone pulpit of wineglass shape has pierced panels with crocketed canopies and pinnacles over ogee arches with tracery, original colour retouched 1865

Perpendicular font, probably C14, octagonal with panelled sides in second bay from west of north arcade removed from church C18 and restored 1865

fan vault and early C17 stone dole-table to entrance, two storeys above rebuilt as single-height room (not inspected) 1831-33.

MONUMENTS: numerous monuments, brasses and wall tablets, wall tablets re-arranged by Scott, monuments include: Lady Chapel, in north east corner large tomb to Humfry Bridges and his wife, 1598

1620, with recumbent effigies under canopy with coffered arch with two sons kneeling to either end under separate canopies and six daughters to front by Baldwin of Stroud, to south wall semi-reclining effigy of Sir Thomas Master 1680, other tablets and headstones and C15 and C17 brasses.

St John the Baptist's Chapel, marble kneeling figures of George Monox, 1638, and his wife, on raised tomb with canopy and broken pediment attributed to Thomas Stanton of Holborn.

Trinity Chapel, Bathurst family memorials including first Earl and Countess Bathurst, 1776, with busts by Joseph Nollekens, bust of second Earl Bathurst, 1794, six C15 brasses.

STAINED GLASS: Medieval glass largely lost since C18, east window of chancel has medieval glass to lower half of three central lights imported from Siddington, otherwise made up, partly from fragments, in late C18 by Samuel Lysons

medieval fragments in each window of Trinity Chapel

early C16 glass to south window of south nave aisle

C19 glass by Hardman.