St John's Church, Warminster


St John's Church, also known as Church of St John the Evangelist, is a Church of England church located on Boreham Road, Warminster, Wiltshire, England. It was built in 1865 and is a Grade II* listed building.

History and features

The church was built in 1865 due to the overcrowding of the parish church of St Denys, and was completed in the same year. The site is about southeast of the town centre, in a field called Picked Acre alongside Boreham Road, which was given by William Temple of Bishopstrow House in 1859. The Rev JE Phillips opened a building fund which in less than one year raised £2,700, an amount greater than the building's eventual cost of £1,935.
The church was designed by London architect George Edmund Street in 1864–1865, in an Early English style. Judging by the relatively ordinary-looking exterior, the interior is quite unexpected. The tiling throughout, reredos, low chancel screen wall, font, pulpit, oak choir stalls and free-standing nave benches were completed before 1868. The reredos has a gabled centre with Crucifixion. The stained glass in the chancel was made by Clayton and Bell.
The mosaics and opus sectile murals of scriptural scenes on the wall were designed by Charles Ponting and painted by James Powell and Sons in 1911–1915. These striking turn-of-the-century images are matched by the mosaics of the four archangels on the east wall in the chancel, behind the reredos. A baptistery was also added by Ponting in 1925–1926.