Architectural Features
Tower of uncertain, pre-C15 date.
Otherwise, the church is wholly of the C15 and was apparently built in a single building campaign completed in 1451.
Bellframe rebuilt c.1680-1710.
The chancel, clerestoried nave and aisles are embattled and have C15 windows, mostly with cusped lights and vertical tracery.
There is evidence for it having been altered to match the mid C15 work.
The very shallow S porch is richly decorated, and has a two-centred arch with many tiny orders under a crocketted ogee label and a small, embattled parapet with pinnacles and side gargoyles.
INTERIOR The spacious interior is also almost wholly of the C15,
only a small area of C12 stonework N of the chancel arch and weather courses for former nave and aisle roofs on the internal E and S faces of the tower remain from earlier churches.
The N and S chapels open from the chancel through C15 single arches with two, wave moulded orders, and the chancel arch is similar.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Excellent C15 and C19 fittings.
C15 chancel piscina has miniature vaulting inside the recess.
There is another C15 piscina in the S aisle.
Delicate, timber, wineglass pulpit of 1953, donated by E Bowman and Sons, who carried out the restoration work.
Excellent nave benches of 1856 by Edward Browning, with openwork backs, poppyheads and carved ends.
There are C15 screens at the E ends of the N and S aisles closing off the chapels.
Excellent C15 glass, all of 1451, was cleaned and partly re-set in 1974, including chancel N window, and windows in both the N and S aisles.
The other glass is C19 and C20, and includes the E and W windows of 1856 by Francis Wilson Oliphant, and windows by Heaton, Butler and Baynes, and Clayton and Bell.
The roofs are all mid C15 and were re-coloured in 1856.
The chancel roof has cambered tie beams with short king posts, tracery infill above the beams and carved bosses.
The nave roof also has cambered tie beams with foliate bosses, with angels on the intermediate principals.
The S aisle and S chapel roofs are lean to and also have angels on the wall posts, while the N aisle and N chapel roofs are simpler.
and William Gregory and Agnes, his wife, undated C15, and Henry Sargeaunt, rector, d. 1497.
There are many good C18 and early C19 wall tablets, notably John Booth, d. 1799, a Coade stone relief of a female figure leaning on an urn and signed Coade, London, 1800.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES The small church yard contains a number of good C18 and C19 head stones, and several monuments are attached to the outside of the church.
Stamford was sacked and burned by the Lancastrian forces in 1461, but the newly rebuilt church apparently survived the destruction intact.
Its wholescale rebuilding c.1450 reflected the prosperity of the town in this period, when it was made rich by the wool and cloth trade.
It was the first of Stamford¿s churches to be influenced by the Tractarian movement and was refitted in High Church style in 1856 by local architect Edward Browning, who also worked on Stamford¿s other medieval churches.
As well as restoration and re-seating, the work included extensive painted decoration in the chancel, but this was removed in 1878 when new furnishings including a Caen stone reredos and pulpit, both later removed, were installed.
SOURCES Pevsner, N and Harris, J., Buildings of England: Lincolnshire , 690-1 Smith, J F H, Church of St John the Baptist: Stamford, Lincolnshire, CCT Guidebook RCHME Stamford , 15-17 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St John the Baptist, Stamford is designated at Grade I for the following principal reasons: * Outstanding, and very complete, town church of the C15 including its C15 roofs and many C15 fittings including screens and some glass. * Tower has important landmark value. * Restored in 1856 by Edward Browning with excellent C19 fittings by Browning, including nave benches and choir stalls. * Good C19 and C20 glass.