St John's Church, Boxmoor

St John's Church, Boxmoor
St John's Church viewed from the west
St John's Church, Boxmoor
Shown within Hertfordshire
Coordinates: 51°44′40″N 0°28′44″W / 51.744472°N 0.478778°W / 51.744472; -0.478778
Location Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Country England
Denomination Church of England
Website www.stjohnsboxmoor.co.uk
History
Dedication St. John
Architecture
Heritage designation Grade II listed[1]
Architect(s) Norman Shaw
Style Gothic Revival
Years built 1874
Administration
Parish Boxmoor
Deanery Hemel Hempstead
Archdeaconry St Albans
Diocese St Albans
Province Canterbury
Clergy
Vicar(s) Michael Macey
Assistant Benjamin Weitzmann
Laity
Reader(s) Carole Lewis, Sheena Wilson

The Church of St John the Evangelist is a Grade II listed church in Boxmoor, Hertfordshire, England.[1] The church was consecrated in 1874 on land purchased from the Box Moor Trust.[2][3]:97

Design

St John's was designed by Norman Shaw in the Gothic Revival style. The church is made up of snecked rubble stone and features ashlar dressings and a plain tiled roof. An octagonal bellcote can be seen above the nave. Lancet arches run the length of the nave and clerestory, whilst internally the nave arcade is carried on piers of quatrefoil tracery. Tracey can also be found on the five-light window on the south face of the church, whilst another five-light window can be found on the east face.[1]

The church hall is similarly styled in ashlar dressings, which have been diagonally tooled, and features two bays of three-light mullioned windows.[1]

History

The first Church of St John at Boxmoor was founded in 1830, and was chapel of ease to the then parish church. An application for the construction of this chapel was sent to the trustees of the Box Moor Trust in November, 1828.[3]:97 In September of the following year, the land was sold for the sum of £71 and the chapel was duly erected, and inaugurated in May 1830.[3]:97 The need for a new Church of England place of worship was precipitated by the influx of Anglicans in the southern edges of Hemel Hempstead.[3]:97

The Parish of Boxmoor was created in 1844,[3]:97 and has since grown to include three places of worship. St John's acts as the parish church, with St Stephen's in Chaulden and the Italianate style St Francis' also in Boxmoor also serving the parishioners.[2]

The interior of St John's Church. Some of the organ pipes can be seen on the right hand side

A request was made by Revd A.C. Richings in 1865 to the Box Moor Trust enquiring if it would be possible to build on Roughdown Common, a proposal which never came to pass. This was followed up by an application to build a new church; the chapels congregation had outgrown the building. This was granted, and contractor workshops were erected on the neighbouring moor in January 1873. The church was designed by noted architect Norman Shaw, and cost £4400 to complete.[3]:97 Further additions would be made to St John's; the church hall was added in 1881,[1] whilst in 1893 the church itself was enlarged, bringing the capacity up to 850.[3]:98 The church hall was improved upon over a century later, when a new one was built in July, 2002. This new hall is used as a meeting space.[3]:98[4] St John's would be officially designated as a Grade II listed building in February, 1977.[1]

St John's Church features a Nicholson & Co Ltd pipe organ, which was installed at a cost of £400,000 in 2011.[5][6] The previous organ had been in situ since 1906, when it was designed by Lindsay Garrard. Foskett and Co reconstructed it organ in 1936, whilst Nicholson and Co would refurbish it in 1964. The building works carried out in 2002 further aggravated the already unreliable instrument, and as such a new one was installed.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Historic England - Church of St John the Evangelist". Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Home - St John's Church". Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Royalty to Commoners - Four Hundred years of the Box Moor Trust, Joan and Roger Hands, pub. Alpine Press. Kings Langely. (2004)
  4. ↑ "About Us - St John's Church, Boxmoor". Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  5. ↑ "Hemel Hempstead - St John's Church Boxmoor - Nicholson and Co". Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  6. ↑ "New Year and new organ to replace church's 104-year-old instrument". Retrieved 19 January 2018.
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