Saturday, December 18, 2010

Saint John the Baptist's Church, Bollington, Cheshire

A beautiful picture of this Commissioner's Church of 1832-34 by Hayley and Brown. It is sad to hear that St Johns is to be declared redundant and sold.
It is built of Hammer-dressed buff sandstone with ashlar dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof. The church has a 5-bay nave, short chancel, west tower and small vestry at the east. Bays of nave, divided by set-back buttresses, have tall splayed 2-light windows with Y-tracery, under a continuous label mould. Embattled parapets. Nave ends in octagonal buttresses with pointed finials. Similar buttresses to chancel which has a triple lancet window. The four-staged tower has similar corner buttresses and on flanking walls. Rebated pointed west doorcase has a 3-light window with intersecting tracery above. 3rd stage has a clock and 4th stage louvred bell openings similar to nave windows. Embattled top.

The interior has galleries on three sides, erected in 1854, which have lancet moulded panels, and are supported on clusters of 4 thin iron columns.