Church Heritage Record 616085

6-bay nave (including 2-bay north and south transepts) with north-west porch. Chancel with 3-sided apsidal east end and vestry at ground floor around it. Boiler room beneath south transept.

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Coleford is a market town and previously a centre of mining (local mining was of iron ore and coal, and there remain a number of open stone quarries today). There is evidence of Roman settlement in the area but it was certainly a principal settlement by the 17th Century when Coleford was granted a market. Despite fast growth during the 19th Century by the end of the century (by the time St John’s had been built) there had been a change of fortune and many mines had closed.

The new St John’s was intended to replace the existing parish church which stood in the Market Place, designed by Richard James and built in 1820 (with a £600 ICBS grant). It had itself replaced an earlier building. That church, though known as “the new chapel” and in fair condition, was after much deliberation deemed too small (it had 580 seats) and in need of expansion which was limited by a confined site. The decision was made in 1869 to build a new church on a new site, and land was bought. However the arrival of the Great Western Railway into Coleford delayed plans and also demanded that a second site had to be found. The former church was demolished in 1882 following the completion of the new building, the fabric being used to build a new school. Only the tower remains.

St John’s is a late Victorian church designed by Frederick Sandham Waller [1822-1905], architect to the dean and chapter of Gloucester and at the time Diocesan Surveyor. According to Pevsner, Coleford was one of Waller’s ‘biggest and best churches’.

A successful ICBS grant application was made and the foundation stone was laid in 1878. The original concept included a south-west tower and spirelet over the chancel crossing. Due to shortage of funds work was carried out in phases. When the church was consecrated in 1880, it consisted of nave and chancel only, there were temporary walls where the transepts were intended. The south transept was completed in 1886 by Sidney Gambier-Parry of Victoria Street, Westminster [1859-1949]. Parry added the vestry around the east end and the north porch in 1890. The north transept, which Pevsner attributes to A H Pearson, was added in 1907 as recorded by a foundation stone in the external wall. The tower and spirelet were never built.

St John the Evangelist looms over Coleford from its perch on Bowen’s Hill; the soaring height of its red stone walls exaggerated by its elevation. The nave and chancel are under a single roof with double gabled transepts projecting to north and south. Crested ridge tiles mark the chancel and crosses mark either end of the roof and the chancel crossing.

The building was designed in the Gothic Revival style and though not built in one single phase, the design has a unity and completeness which ensures a regular rhythm and repetition of bays. Punctuating the north and south walls, set within a pointed stone surround, are two-light windows with either a quatrefoil or cinquefoil above. Two three-light windows fill the west elevation and pairs of trefoil-headed lancets are used in the transepts. The three-sided east end is lit on each side by two-light windows with a sexfoil window above, set within a pointed recess. At ground level a low extension (vestry) with lean-to roof wraps around the apsidal end, with sets of five trefoil-headed lights on each of the three sides.

A porch, which has two lights set within the east and west walls, projects at the west end of the north elevation. The pitch of its roof interrupting the windows in the second bay. Access to the interior is gained through an inner glazed timber porch within.

The inside space is vast, light and open. The large windows are all filled with clear glass (only exception in the east) allowing light to flood the interior, and are supplemented by large spotlights at the wall-plate. Spanning the length of the nave, at considerable height, is a complex roof structure consisting of a timber collar roof with crown posts and arch braces as well as wind braces. The main trusses rest on stone corbels between the bays. The walls are plastered and painted. A limestone cill continues around the interior beneath the windows, stepping up at the west end where the windows are higher (their glazing was replaced in the 1980s following the ‘pound a pane campaign’ and the names of donors are recorded in a frame on the north wall).

Inside, the area west of the porch has been cleared of pews. The south-west corner has been fitted with a kitchen with linoleum floor. The rest of the area, which is carpeted, has a selection of seats and tables. The font is raised on two steps in the centre at the west end. The remainder of the nave remains seated with plain oak fixed pews on level wood-boarded platforms. These were given as a war memorial in the 1950s (recorded on a memorial on the north wall) and replaced the original wooden chairs (some of which remain at the west end and in the Lady Chapel). Radiators have been fixed to the front of the pews at the east end and the backs of the pews at the west end, in addition to those fixed to the north and south walls. The side aisles are paved in black and red quarry tiles, the central aisle has been carpeted.

The transepts are separated from the main nave space by two-bay arcades with a central, tall, octagonal sandstone pier. The roofs are wood-panelled barrel vaults. The north transept, separated by a solid oak panelled screen, has a church room at ground level, formed by the insertion of a temporary roof which has suffered greatly from water damage. The eastern bay of the transept contains the organ. The south transept is screened by an open carved oak screen on a limestone base. An inscription on the south side is dated 1925. The east end of the chapel is raised and paved in encaustic tiles and there is a small altar table. The east and south wall are wood panelled and a stone piscina is set within the south wall. A decorative wrought iron and oak rail separates the east end. The remainder of the chapel’s tile floor is covered by carpet with a mixture of furniture at the western end.

The choir, which sits within the nave, is raised by three steps and separated by a carved stone wall. Steps rise to either side of the area and lead to doors into the vestry which wraps around the east wall. The roof above the choir is a timber barrel vault which differentiates it from the length of the nave. Tiered oak choir stalls with linen-fold panelled frontals stand to north and south sides. The central space is carpeted but evidence of tile work underneath can be seen between the choir stalls.

The apsidal sanctuary is raised by another step. At roof height it is separated by a high ornate timber sanctuary arch with gilding. The roof of the apse has been painted. The reredos dominates the east end. Beneath the windows on each side is oak linen-fold panelling which is inscribed in two places. A stone piscina is set within the wall to the south. The Lords prayer may have been painted on the east wall but is no longer visible. Above the reredos is the only stained glass in the church, a 20th Century addition. The floor at the east end is covered in carpet, encaustic tiles pave the area just west of the communion rails which presumably also survive beneath the carpet.