SOUTH CROXTON PARISH of ST.JOHN THE BAPTIST

The original stone church, which replaced either a Saxon preaching cross, or a church was built just before 1090 in the early Norman style. It would have been built in a primitive manner, with plain and simple features. It was financed by Aldulius de Braci, and dedicated to St.John the Baptist. It would have been an important place for the community to meet.

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The present church replaced that original building, and dates mostly from the early 14th.century. It was built in the style of the age, with thinner walls than the previous church, with large windows, and a more decorative exterior. There is evidence of some Norman foundations in the north aisle, which was not built; and the Norman font was placed in the new church, given a 14th. century octagonal base, and is still in use. There is evidence that a more ambitious building might have been originally planned. It was built partly from bits of other demolished churches - the windows do not all match and the tower arch is of earlier design than the rest of the church. The whole fabric of the church seems to have been defective, and some parts of the foundations unstable, so that in 1925 extensive repairs had to be carried out when the north wall came away from the tower. The church is built of local Waltham ironstone, which, although beautiful in the sunlight, is porous, and weathers badly. Only the spire, surprisingly short for the proportions of the tower, is of limestone, and the facings are of freestone. One theory for the change of plan is that a plague, perhaps even the Black Death, decimated the artisans who might have built it: another that the wars in France presented a heavy tax burden on the locality. We shall never know. After a hundred years the original roof was replaced, the South aisle built and the chancel enlarged. The north door of the church is blocked up. This would have been used by the Lord of the Manor, and by the priest. The window in the west wall by the tower is also blocked up. No one knows why or when - perhaps to strengthen the wall.

In 1636, after the Reformation, bells were hung in the tower. These are still in the tower, but unhung. There is a fund for their restoration. Just over100 years ago a great oak growing in the middle of the mediaeval moat to the north of the churchyard was bought, sawn, and weathered for ten years. Then Bill Glover a carpenter and Edward Smith a wheelwright in the village, made the south door, and hung it in1885. There is a record that a relation of Bill Glover, Nat Glover, who died in 1940, oiled it carefully each year.

On June 4th.1936 the tower was struck by lightning. Within the same year repairs to the tower were carried out, and a plaque in the tower commemorates this achievement. Within a further two years the remainder of the damage was repaired. Outside the south door there is a stone memorial surmounted by a lamp, donated by the Sunday School, to commemorate this.

The floodlighting of the church was switched on in time for the new Millennium.

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This page was last updated on : 24 April 2008