St John the Baptist, Lower Shuckburgh
St John the Baptist, Lower Shuckburgh
St John the Baptist is a Grade II parish church on Sawbridge Road, Lower Shuckburgh, Warwickshire, in the Diocese of Coventry and the Bridges Group of parishes.
- Location
- Lower Shuckburgh, Warwickshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Warwickshire
- City / town
- Lower Shuckburgh
- Address
- Sawbridge Road, Lower Shuckburgh, Warwickshire, NN11 6DY
- Postcode
- NN11 6DY
- Built
- 1864; replacing a church destroyed by fire in 1860
- Architect
- John Croft
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- John the Baptist
- Diocese
- Coventry
- Parish
- Lower Shuckburgh
- Grade
- II
- Style
- High Victorian Gothic (idiosyncratic; sometimes called Moorish Gothic)
- Materials
- Squared coursed ironstone with limestone quoins, dressings and tracery, and some lias; old-tile roofs
- Grid reference
- SP 489 626
- Opening hours
- To gain access to the church please contact the churchwarden using the email address and arrangements can be made.
- Access
- Level access throughout. Ramp or level access available on request
Overview
Historic England records a church of 1864 by John Croft: an aisled cruciform plan with a south-west porch tower, in a highly idiosyncratic High Victorian Gothic. Fabric is squared coursed ironstone with limestone quoins, dressings and tracery, some lias banding, and old-tile roofs with moulded coped gable parapets. The listing calls it a complete and highly original example of High Victorian rogue architecture. The interior is polychromatic, with plastered walls and piers, arches and bands of red terracotta, limestone and blue brick, notched saw-toothed arches, quadripartite rib vaulting in the chancel, and an unusual hammer-beam nave roof.
The National Churches Trust notes that the present building replaced a predecessor destroyed by fire in 1860. Sir Frederick Shuckburgh commissioned Croft; the estate village remains associated with Shuckburgh Hall. A thirteenth-century tapering cylindrical font survives. Fittings of 1864 include the reredos, pulpit, pews and altar rails.