Old St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling

Old St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling
Old St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling
	Old St John the Baptist's Church,; from the south
	Old St John the Baptist's Church, Pilling Location in the Borough of Wyre
	53°55′44″N 2°54′40″W / 53.9290°N 2.9111°W
OS grid reference	SD 403 485
Location	Pilling, Lancashire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Churches Conservation Trust
History
Dedication	John the Baptist
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	17 April 1967
Architectural type	Church
Style	Georgian
Completed	1717 (altered 1813)
Specifications
Materials	Sandstone, slate roof

Old St John the Baptist's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Pilling, Lancashire, England. It stands 160 yards (150 m) to the south of the new church, also dedicated to St John the Baptist.^[1] The church is "an unusual survival of a small Georgian church".^[2] It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building,^[2] and it is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.^[3]

History

The village was originally served by a small medieval chapel (28 ft (8.5 m) by 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m)), serviced until the Dissolution by the canons of Cockersand Abbey. In 1716 the parishioners of Pilling petitioned the Bishop of Chester for a new church.^[4] In response, St John's was built in 1717. The only structural alteration since then was the raising of the walls in 1813 to accommodate galleries.^[3] It became redundant when the new church was built in 1887.^[2] The church was vested in the Trust on 1 August 1986.^[5] St John's is termed a chapel, rather than a church, due to its being a parochial chapelry in the parish of Garstang, served by a perpetual curate as opposed to a vicar.^[4]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in red sandstone, with a plinth, chamfered quoins, and other dressings in grey sandstone. The roof is slate.^[2] It is a simple building, long and low.^[3] On the west gable is a double bellcote. The church has five bays. On the south front is a single row of windows with round heads and a single chamfered mullion. In the westernmost bay is a door over which is a smaller similar window, but with no mullion. The door has a keystone inscribed with the date 1717, over which is a sandstone sundial with a plaque including the date 1766. The east window is similar to the windows in the south wall, but with two mullions. The north wall has two tiers of five windows; the lower windows have flat lintels, and the upper row consists of lunette windows.

Interior

The interior has a flat plaster ceiling.^[2] The walls are whitewashed and the church is floored with stone flags.^[6] There are galleries on the north and west sides, carried on Tuscan-style columns, and on the ground floor there are fixed simple oak benches, box pews (one of which carries the date 1719), and a two-decker pulpit. The sandstone font dates from the 18th century and is in the shape of an urn.^[2] The Royal coat of arms of King George I dated 1719 are displayed in a hatchment.^[6] Before the alteration of the roof in 1813, the chapel was open to the rafters. The pulpit was originally three-tier and was located against the north wall.^[4]

External features

The churchyard contains the war graves of two soldiers and a merchant sailor of World War I.^[7]

References

^ Lancashire Churches: Pilling, St John, Tony Boughen, archived from the original on 18 May 2010, retrieved 8 September 2010
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Historic England, "Old Church of St John Baptist, Pilling (1073080)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 31 August 2013
^ ^a ^b ^c Church of St John the Baptist, Pilling, Lancashire, Churches Conservation Trust, retrieved 18 October 2016
^ ^a ^b ^c Weston, Dr. D., (2006), St John the Baptist's Old Church, Pilling, Lancashire, The Churches Conservation Trust, 2nd edition, printed 1989
^ Diocese of Blackburn: All Schemes (PDF), Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2010, p. 4, retrieved 3 April 2011
^ ^a ^b 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
^ PILLING (ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST) OLD CHURCHYARD, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, retrieved 16 February 2013

[1] Lancashire Churches: Pilling, St John, Tony Boughen, archived from the original on 18 May 2010, retrieved 8 September 2010

[hg-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Historic England, "Old Church of St John Baptist, Pilling (1073080)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 31 August 2013

[cct-3] Church of St John the Baptist, Pilling, Lancashire, Churches Conservation Trust, retrieved 18 October 2016

[Weston-4] Weston, Dr. D., (2006), St John the Baptist's Old Church, Pilling, Lancashire, The Churches Conservation Trust, 2nd edition, printed 1989

[5] Diocese of Blackburn: All Schemes (PDF), Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2010, p. 4, retrieved 3 April 2011

[pev-6] 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

[7] PILLING (ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST) OLD CHURCHYARD, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, retrieved 16 February 2013

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