A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CHURCH AND PARISH

St John’s church dates from about 1165. Originally it was one of two chapels on the west bank of the Severn, the other being at Lower Wick (the remains of which -- St Cuthbert’s -- can be found in the farm buildings behind the Manor Farm eatery). By 1371, after the Black Death, it was decided to close the Lower Wick church (which had, for a short while been the parish church) as it was in a neglected state and very poorly attended. On the other hand, St John’s was a flourishing community near the bridgehead where the drove roads out of mid-Wales converged, and since 1287 had been the place where the vicar lived. St John’s was made the parish church on February 17th 1372. It has given its name to the whole area.

The part of Worcester we call St John’s was originally an independent township, with the Prior and Convent of Worcester (i.e. the Cathedral today) as Lord of the Manor. It has only been part of Worcester since 1837. It was allowed its own Fair, and served the nearby city by providing lodging houses for Welsh people (who were not allowed to sleep in the city at one time) and a bullring (so that cattle could be enraged before being slaughtered, which was believed to improve the meat -- but the city preferred this dirty work done outside its walls). The slight sense of independent pride, and of separation from the rest of the city, no doubt has its roots in St John’s individual and distinctive history.

The church building is of some interest as the comparable city churches of Worcester were nearly all rebuilt in the 18th century -- so St John’s is the only one today that gives some impression of what the features of a ‘town’ church in Worcester might have been.

The oldest part is the Norman arcade on the North side of the nave (i.e. left hand side, from the back), these grey pillars are the only surviving part of the original 1165 chapel; the arches above them are Victorian, cut much higher to allow those sitting in the erstwhile side gallery to see better. What we term the Lady Chapel today was originally a chapel for the people of Lower Wick, and housed a statue of St Cuthbert which was a popular focus of local devotion and pilgrimage; it was built, perhaps, to compensate for the loss of St Cuthbert’s at Lower Wick. The South Aisle, with its large windows, was added shortly afterwards. Originally it was divided from the Nave with parclose screens (if you look carefully you can see how some of the stonework on the pillars has been carved to ‘marry’ with the wooden screens); each window had an altar beneath it, and these were chantry chapels, with priests other than the vicar retained to celebrate daily masses for the souls of wealthy patrons. The North side of the church had chantries as well, and one pillar has a hagioscope (or squint) cut right through it as a window for the chantry priest, so that he could see the vicar celebrating the parish mass at the High Altar and time his own accordingly. The tower was built in about 1481, and apart from leaning slightly backwards once carried a ‘lofty leaden steeple’ which was shot off by cannon fire during the Civil War. The church suffered very badly during the Civil War, being plundered and set on fire; Parliament granted £80 towards its repair at the Restoration. The 19th century saw the church extended, first with the building of a new and spacious North Aisle, Vestry and Porch, and then with the extension of the Chancel and organ chamber -- which work meant that the Vicarage had to be largely demolished and re-sited, although the oldest part of that building (dated about 1600) survived and is still in use as our Parish Office.