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ST. JOHN'S CHURCH - St. Johns Ruins

Once the Cathedral Church of Peter, the first Norman Bishop of Mercia. On this site there stood a church founded according to tradition by King Ethelred in A.D. 689. The Chapter House contains some stones, probably belonging to a subsequent Saxon church.

The extensive ruins in the churchyard show what a small fragment of the original building is now used as a church.
Practically speaking, only the nave remains, having been spared at the earnest request of the parishioners when the Commissioners of King Edward VI reduced the rest to ruins.

The architecture of the nave is exceptionally fine; the lowest storey, m the massive Norman style, is the earliest in date, the triforium belongs to the Transitional period, and the clerestory is in the fully-developed Early English style.

The great west window, a memorial of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, illustrates the church's long history. Among other interesting relics are some inscribed stones - one marked with hammer and tongs, another with scissors, wand and glove, the emblems of the trades respectively of a smith and a glover - and, among the ruins, the "coffin in the wall."

On the right of the steps leading from the ruins to the Suspension bridge is the Hermitage, an Anchorite's Cell reputed to have been inhabited by a Friar in 1363.

		The extensive ruins in the churchyard show what a small fragment of the original building is now used as a church. Practically speaking, only the nave remains, having been spared at the earnest request of the parishioners when the Commissioners of King Edward VI reduced the rest to ruins. The architecture of the nave is exceptionally fine; the lowest storey, m the massive Norman style, is the earliest in date, the triforium belongs to the Transitional period, and the clerestory is in the fully-developed Early English style. The great west window, a memorial of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, illustrates the church's long history. Among other interesting relics are some inscribed stones - one marked with hammer and tongs, another with scissors, wand and glove, the emblems of the trades respectively of a smith and a glover - and, among the ruins, the "coffin in the wall."
On the right of the steps leading from the ruins to the Suspension bridge is the Hermitage, an Anchorite's Cell reputed to have been inhabited by a Friar in 1363.