St John the Baptist, Keele

St John the Baptist is a Grade II* parish church on Church Bank in Keele, Staffordshire, in the Diocese of Lichfield, rebuilt in the Decorated style for the Sneyd family of Keele Hall.

Overview

Historic England records a parish church on a medieval site, entirely rebuilt by J. Lewis of Newcastle-under-Lyme between 1868 and 1870. The fabric is pink sandstone, rough-faced coursed rubble, with graded slate roofs, raised verges on kneelers and crosses to the gables. The plan has a nave, chancel, south-west tower with spire, south aisle and chapel, north aisle with vestry, and south and west porches. The three-stage tower has angle buttresses, corner pinnacles and a tall recessed spire with gabled lucarnes. The nave is of four bays with a clerestory of twin trefoil-headed windows.

A good iron screen of about 1870 stands across the chancel arch. Most fittings are of that date or later, except re-assembled fragments of fourteenth-century stained glass in the west window of the tower and an eighteenth-century coat of arms over the chancel arch. Monuments include recumbent alabaster effigies of William Sneyd and his wife, and an elaborate monument to Radulph Sneyd (died 1703). The Victorian rebuilding was paid for by Ralph Sneyd of Keele Hall.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1377612
• British Listed Buildings: Church of St John the Baptist, Keele
• St John’s, Keele