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St. John's Church |
Kellys Directory page 21-22
The church of St. John the Baptist was originally the church of a college founded here by King Ethelred in 689 for a dean and 7 prebendaries; refounded in 906 by Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, and again by Leofric Earl of Mercia for a dean, 7 canons, 10 vicars, 2 clerks and 4 choristers: from 1075 until 1102 it served as the cathedral of Peter, Bishop of Lichfleld who, in 1075, removed his seat to .Chester and founded the present church as his cathedral: the church situated without the city walls, on a cliff of red stone rising above the north bank of the Dee, is a fine example of the Norman, Transition and Early English styles, consisting of choir with aisles (now of one bay only out of four the remainder being in ruins), clerestoried nave of four bays with triforium, north and south aisles, south-eastern chapel , crypt, north porch and a north east tower containing a clock and 8 bells: the old tower which stood at the north-west angle of the structure fell in 188l, entirely destroying the north porch; the latter was rebuilt in 1882 and a new tower was erected in 1886 at the north-east angle of the church: in 1887 the north wall of the church was strengthened with buttresses and entirely replaced by the 1st Duke of Westminster K.G : the massive circular pillars of the nave and crossing date from 1075 to 1095 : in the crypt are some fine pre-Norman crosses and in the north aisle is a glass case containing objects of antiquity found at various periods in and about the church: there are some mural boards by Randle Holme, the herald and author; and the mural monumeuts include one to Cecil Warburton esq. d.1728; Diana Warburton, d.1693 with the figure of a skeleton finely carved in marble; to William Falconer, recorder of the city of Chester, d. 1764; Elizabeth, his wife, d. 1782, and their five children, and others :there are also several memorial brasses ; there is a memorial oak screen in the south-east chapel : the stained west window , erected in 1890 , was the gift of the 1st Duke of Westminster :in the north aisle is the recumbent cross-legged effigy of a knight in chain mail covered with a surcoat ; there are 999 sittings . The register dates from the year 1559 . The living is a vicarage yearly value £305 , in the gift of the Duke of Westminster G.C.V.O., D.S.O. and has been held since 1936 by the Rev. Albert William George Duffield B.A. of Hatfield College Durham.
The Foundation of St.. JOHN'S Church
Lectures on the History of S. John Baptist Church & Parish - By Scott
An account, found in King's Vale Royal, on the authority of Roger Hoveden states , that this Saxon church was erected about the year 906, by Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, and Etelfleda his wife, the daughter of Alfred the Great this view is strengthened by the findings of some Saxon Coins on March 4th 1862 during the excavations which were made at the restoration of the church , these are supposed to be foundation coins, and the late Mr. Thomas Hughes whose interest in all antiquarian matters connected with the City , is so well known , wrote an account of them of which the following is an extract :-
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I conceive that these coins which have come to us from
their respective mints, and have never been in actual circulation were without reasonable doubt the foundation
coins of S.John's and of the type current in the Church or State at the date of the ceremony that they escaped
recognition when the Norman edifice of stone, replaced the Saxon one of wood, and that the same happy fate, awaited
them when the nave was cut down in late years; and that after lying dormant in the soil for nearly 1,000 years they have reappeared in this year of grace 1862 as if purposely to remove a cloud of historic dust from our eyes, while at the same time they prove in language that cannot lie, the remote antiquity nay the Saxon origin of that venerable structure. |
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If these coins are actually , as I believe them to be foundation coins then St. Johns Church must have been founded by Etllelred, Earl of Mercia, not by the King of Mercia of the same name in this case the Saxon Church would date from about 906.
BRITISH CROSSES
But since these words were written, further discoveries
have been made, which again direct our minds to an earlier date than this.
In 1870 the Duke of Westminster directed that the accumulatuions
of earth which Concealed much of the ruins of the Choir, and its Chapels, shouldi be removed ; in this process,
there were discovered those beautiful crosses which are now preserved in the Chapter House, along with the Bosses
from the vaulted roofs of the Choir and Chapels.Professor
Browne, who is an eminent authority
on Saxon sculptured work, says of these
Among the large collection of fragments of stones in the Crypt of S. John's, Chester, there are several crosses,
and portions of crosses, and other stones, which may be attributed to pre Nornman style. There are at least four
stones, more or less complete with circular heads, from which the keys of a cross project, and with shafts covered
with interlacing work. The keys and the crosses, contain triquetroe and other like ornamented on its face and on
its edge, the wheel connecting the keys, is ornamented on its face and on its edge with the key pattern, the Z
pattern and interlacing pattern, and the edges of the shaft similarly ornamented.
It is more easy to describe these crosses negatively than positively. They are un-Anglian, un-Scottish, un-Irish, un-Scandinavian. They resemble most closely a head of one of the few great crosses left in Wales, known as the Maen-Achwynfan , and the fragments and head of a cross at Diserth ; the resemblance is much to close to be accidental.
The Maen-Achiwynfan is in the middle of a number of places, which take their name from some great catastrophe of the past, these names all point to this locality , as the scene of some prolonged disaster to the: British i Arms, and there seems no doubt that the stone must be of British character .
If this is so , the question of the period at which S. John's crosses were made becomes a very interesting one.
Professor Freeman in his admirable Paper on the Ancient history of Chester,
believed that the Brets left Chester absolutely deserted alter their great defeat by Ethelfrith. The British character
of these crosses would rather point to the Brets, having taken heart and to a certain extent occupied Chester again,
before the time when they were altogether driven out of this part of England , in the year 903. It is perhaps not
unreasonable to suppose, that they fled from Chester into Flintshire, and that the survivors of the, series of
battles , which took place as they fled set up on the scene of the last catastrophe a stone of the same character,
as those they had been accustomed to set up in Chester
There is the same collection a remarkable stone of triangular shape resembling in its work the details the shafts and crosses described but apparently having ended in the vertex of a triangle, and not in a cross head, it hits on it scales, as have also some of the shafts of the crosses, and this is a feature which has not been observed on any stones, other than the hogbacked stones; the presence of these scales on the Chester stone is therefore very remarkable. They resemble very much the scales on the Armour of St.. Michael on the curious early statue dug up in Monmouthshire, and shown in Strutt's Habits of Anglo - Saxons, forming what Sir Meyrich has described as tegulated armour. There are also fragments of two beautiful Sculptured Shafts 0f Crosses, which must have been as fine in their work as any of the pre - Norman monuments left in England
ST JOHNS
About 1200 A.D. the Earl of Chester-was besieged by the Welsh in Rhuddlan Castle. It was the time of the Chester Midsummer Fair, attended by a motley collection of cutpurses, villains, buskers and debauched persons. The Constable press-ganged them into a makeshift army and set off to relieve the siege. The Welsh , believing that a mighty army was approaching, wisely, folded their tents and melted into their mountain fastnesses
As a reward for their "voluntary" services all minstrels who annually attended the Summer Fair and accompanied the Constable's Steward to St.. John's, playing upon their instruments, received a licence to ply their calling anywhere throughout the kingdom without fear of arbitrary arrest as rogues or vagabonds .
The Custom of the Cheshire Minstrels attending divine service on the Feast Day of St.. John the Baptist each midsummer persisted until 1756.
In modern times the Church continues its association with musicians and hosts frequent concerts by amateur and professional musicians from all over the world.
