Church Heritage Record 603279

Nave of 6 bays plus one part bay, with north and south aisles embracing a west tower and steeple. There are north and south porches at the west end but no west door.  Three bay chancel with organ chamber in the north chancel aisle and lady chapel in the south chancel aisle. Vestries adjoin the lady chapel on the south and have a separate entrance. The aisle galleries have been removed although the west gallery remains with access through modern rooms.

Nave approximately 33m (100ft) x 8m (25ft)

St John’s is the historic parish church of Preston, which despite its industrial appearance has been a town of some importance since Roman times.  The church is a fitting symbol for such a town, rebuilt many times and now Victorian in terms of fabric but with a long and complex development dating back to the 10th century at least; the advowson belonged to Earl Tostig pre-Domesday.

The church was originally dedicated to St Wilfrid. There is documentary evidence for several periods of decay and repair, at roughly 100 year intervals in the late 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.  The steeple was taken down and rebuilt in 1811-14, the chancel rebuilt in 1817 by the Hoghton family, major patrons of the church. 

An old painting survives of the church around this time, showing a simpler building crenellated throughout. It had a narrow clearstorey and low-pitched roofs, and what would appear to be Perpendicular tracery.  The tower had one large window high in each face, corner pinnacles and a crenellated parapet.

The church was restored in 1853-55 by the prolific Manchester based ecclesiastical architect E H Shellard at a cost of £9,500, whereby the building was apparently demolished except for the lower portion of the tower, and rebuilt on the original foundations.  In 1887 the vestry was built and the organ moved from the west gallery.

In 1950 a Memorial Chapel of the Royal North Lancashire Regiment was erected and furnished in the north aisle. The sanctuary was restored in 1951. The church is currently undergoing a major re-ordering under faculty, and this was in full swing at the time of the visit, making appraisal of the building and its furnishings and fittings very difficult.

(2002)

The architectural style chosen for the rebuilding is Decorated, the tone given by the reticulated tracery in 2-centred arched windows with hood moulds to figured stops, and the numerous crocketed pinnacles.  The church has a definite medieval rather than a Victorian feel, perhaps due to the fact that it has retained the medieval floor plan and dimensions.  It is a worthy parish church for this large town.

The tall 3-stage tower has a moulded plinth and string-course, with set-back buttresses. There is a small 2-light west window, a cusped lancet to the 2nd stage and large diamond clock-faces on the north and south sides, a belfry stage with 2 windows in each side, all with stone louvres and crocketed gablets.  It has a cornice with prominent gargoyles, and a parapet with corner pinnacles linked by short flying buttresses to smaller pinnacles clasping the spire. The tall octagonal spire has 2-light gableted lucarnes at the base and small lucarnes on two levels above.

On the north side of the tower there is an elaborate 2-storey gabled porch.  This has a doorway moulded in 2 orders under a hood mould with large angel stops and a crocketed gablet containing mouchettes.  This is flanked by crocketed niches, and at 1st floor level a 2-light window flanked by cusped blind windows.

The nave, of 5 bays plus a half-bay at the east end, has buttresses finished as pinnacles on the parapet, a pair of 2-light clearstorey windows in each full bay and one in the half-bay, and octagonal pinnacles at the east end. The aisles have gableted buttresses and large 3-light windows with tracery in alternating patterns.  The western bay of the south aisle has a cusped doorway.

The 3-bay chancel has diagonal buttresses at the east end terminating in pinnacles, flanking a large 5-light east window.  There is a 3 light window on the north side and a parapet with zigzag open-work.  On the north side of the chancel stands a tall 2-bay organ house, which has 3-light windows in the north side, a large 4 light east window and 3-light windows in the south side.  These latter are mostly obscured by the parallel vestry, which has a doorway at the west end, a traceried 3-light window at the east end and coupled lancets in the north wall.

Moving inside the high and well-lit church, the aisle arcades have quatrefoil piers with nobbly leaf capitals carrying 2-centred arches moulded in 2 orders, with hood-moulds linked by figured stops, the arches of the half-bay dying into the chancel wall.  The chancel arch and the 3 bay arcades dividing the chancel from the side chapels are in a similar style, but with moulded annular caps to the columns and 3 orders of moulding to the arches. 

There are hammer beam roofs to both nave and chancel. The gallery at the west end of nave has survived, carried on large timber girders with mouchette tracery, with cusped blind arcaded panelling to the front.  There were formerly similar galleries in the aisles but these were removed in the 1960’s, leaving only the corbels on the piers.