St John the Baptist, Bettisfield
St John the Baptist, Bettisfield
St John the Baptist is a Grade II* Church in Wales church in a large churchyard opposite Bettisfield Hall Farm, beyond the north end of Bettisfield, Wrexham, in the Diocese of St Asaph.
- Location
- Bettisfield, Wrexham
- Country
- Wales
- County
- Wrexham
- City / town
- Bettisfield
- Address
- Avenue Road, Bettisfield, Wrexham, SY13 2LB
- Postcode
- SY13 2LB
- Built
- 1873-74; plans drawn 1856; replaced an 1851 mission church
- Architect
- G E Street; contractor Powell and Rogers of Prees
- Denomination
- Church in Wales
- Dedication
- John the Baptist
- Diocese
- St Asaph
- Parish
- Bettisfield
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- High Victorian Gothic (Decorated)
- Materials
- Snecked freestone with banded tile roofs and ridge cresting
- Grid reference
- SJ 461 360
- Opening hours
- The church is open every day except for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, from 9am to 5pm or dusk, whichever is the earlier.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets in church
Overview
Cadw records a church by G. E. Street of London for Lord and Lady Hanmer of Bettisfield Park. It replaced a mission church of 1851; plans were drawn in 1856 but the building was not erected until 1873-74. The contractor was Powell and Rogers of Prees. The design is High Victorian Gothic based on the Decorated style: nave with a lower chancel, north transept and a south transept tower. Walls are snecked freestone with moulded sill bands; banded tile roofs with ridge cresting sit behind coped gables. The four-bay nave has a west porch and the tower in the east bay. The three-stage tower is square below with angle buttresses, octagonal in the middle stage with a south clock, and has tall cusped bell openings under a steep pyramidal roof. The chancel has a five-light east window; the west window is five-light with intersecting tracery.
The interior is a complete Street scheme in snecked dressed stone. The nave has a four-bay crown-post roof. A freestone screen base with a quatrefoil frieze crosses the chancel arch. The chancel has a three-bay arched-brace roof, a cusped piscina, double sedilia and a five-bay Caen stone reredos with a crucifix against a diaper ground, flanked by Minton tiles. East and west windows are by Clayton and Bell: the Ascension and the life of Christ at the east, the life and death of John the Baptist at the west. A nave tablet commemorates Lord and Lady Hanmer (d.1881 and 1880).