File:St John's Church, Henley-in-Arden (4436395734).jpg

One of the main reasons for going to Henley-in-Arden was this church at the centre of the town.

It is the Church of St John the Baptist dating from the mid 15th century.

It is in the middle of High Street, to the right of the Guildhall.

It is a Grade I listed building.

Church. c1450 with slightly later north aisle and earlier west tower; restored 1856 and 1900. MATERIALS: coursed dressed lias and coursed lias rubble with ashlar dressings; old tile roof. PLAN: single-vessel chancel and 4-bay nave; west tower and north aisle. EXTERIOR: coped gables with crosses. Chancel has 5-light east window with renewed Perpendicular tracery and hoodmould with head stops; diagonal buttresses. Small C19 gabled vestry to north has tile roof and 2-light straight-headed window. North aisle has flying buttress to west end, cornice, parapet and coped gable; 3-light windows with no hoods, that to east with renewed tracery. Nave south elevation has deep plinth, off-set buttresses and diagonal buttresses, and plain cornice; 3-light windows with renewed tracery and foliated hood stops. West end has shallow-gabled porch with plinth, panelled diagonal buttresses and cornice with crenellated parapet; entrance has continuous mouldings and depressed arch (other entrances similar) and hood with beast stops, crockets and finials, C20 paired battened doors; inner entrance has king and queen headstops, crockets and paired 9-fielded-panel doors; south side of porch has cusped panelling flanking 2-light straight-headed window. Renewed 4-light west window has hood with woman and green man stops, crockets and fleuron. 3-stage west tower has plinth and diagonal buttresses ending in bases to removed pinnacles; 2-light west window. Triple-chamfered cusped light to south and west, with continuous hoodmould; third stage has similar straight-headed lights; top stage has 2-light transomed bell-openings, the lower lights with stone infill, upper ones louvred; south side has stair lights and lozenge-face clock; top cornice and C19 or C20 crenellated parapet. INTERIOR: nave and chancel has roof with arch-braced cambered tie beams on angel corbels, queen struts to arch-braced cambered collars, wind braces and coupled and ashlared common rafters; north arcade has wide shallow 4-centred arches on tall octagonal piers, east respond and west corbel in form of winged beast (cf Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon); chancel north door. South and east windows have head stops with large and elaborate headgear. Aisle has stop-chamfered members to roof; east window over entrance; 2 north windows with stops similar to arcade corbel, and north door set inside-out; double-chamfered tower arch with C19 screen. FITTINGS: C20 panelling to sanctuary, simple stalls and timber rail; early C16 pulpit with renewed stone base, panels with blind tracery over linen-fold with renewed brattished cornice; plain octagonal font with shallow C17 or C18 bowl; mostly C19 fittings. MONUMENTS: marble wall tablet to Simon Kempson, d.1719, and Margaret, d.1699; panel with apron, side pilasters ending in scrolls and crest with armorial bearing. 2 early C18 floor slabs, one to Robert Clayton with armorial bearing. Brass First World War memorial lists causes of death. STAINED GLASS: 1879 east window; 1865 aisle east window with figure of Hope set in grisaille; 1882 west window with pictorial Nativity; south windows of c1856 with decorative roundels set in grisaille. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: wall connecting north-west angle of tower with the Guildhall (qv) has 4-centred entrance with plank door. HISTORY: believed to have Hanoverian Royal Arms to tower. The church built as a chapel of ease to the parish church at Wooton Wawen, and was first mentioned in 1367; the north aisle was used by the Guild of the Holy Trinity, St John the Evangelist and St John the Baptist, first mentioned in 1408. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 309-10; Shell Guides: Hickman D: Warwickshire: London: 1979-: 112; Victoria County History: Styles P: Victoria History of the County of Warwickshire: 1945-: 210-11).

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