The Church of St. John The Evangelist.

Services - Please also see Church Notices and The Journal

Church Contacts

The Church of St. John The Evangelist also has a dedicated website within the main Church of England website.

Church History.

It would seem, from such evidence as can be drawn from the paucity of surviving records, that a church or chapel was built or existed on the site of the present church around 1250 AD. So, as is typical, in particular across the whole of southern England, worship at Staplegrove within a form of the present church has continued since at least early Norman times. The redoubtable Nikolaus Pevsner in his series of famous treatises on Architectural Britain sadly gives only a very brief and hasty description and suggests that the “simple profile” of the chancel imposts (arch and columns) “seems to belong to c 1200. The rest largish and essentially 1857”.

However, the collective view of most authorities, who have studied the architecture of the building, suggests that the lower parts of the tower and main aisle are of 13^th and 14^th century origins, the remainder being later additions as the centuries go by, principally from the restoration of 1857. Certainly four of the six bells in the tower give the definite date of their casting as being 1608, replacing earlier bells of the mid 1500’s, thus partially confirming the view that the tower and main aisle were largely as they are now at that date. One interesting point of note is that the main church doorway was that at the base of the tower, which acted as a porch, with a now blocked up inside doorway into the church midway along the south side of the main aisle.

The church then underwent a major restoration in 1857, but sadly because of administrative oversights the architectural plans for the work, that would normally be held by the Bishop, are missing. This is a particular loss because these plans would normally include not only the new work to be undertaken but also the plan of the existing building before the new work began.

A lot else besides is missing in regard to our Church of St John The Evangelist. One of the main reasons for the lack of documentation, especially in the Middle Ages, when so many other ecclesiastical institutions were well recorded, is thought to be due to the make up of the local population. There were no major estates or local landowners of great repute and so little endowment was bestowed upon the Church, such as would be found in the wills, documents and records of the landed gentry and their families. As a result there is no ‘collateral’ evidence from family collections of what was happening in the locality, of which the church would be the central establishment for most communities at that time.

A worthy booklet is available from within the Church porch for around £2.00 sketching the history and development of Staplegrove Church, written by Derek Shorrocks and published in 1992.

Additional points of Interest.

In the churchyard is the grave of one of the Kennedy family, Jimmy, who lived at Staplegrove Elm, present home of the Somerset Nuffield Hospital. Jimmy Kennedy was the composer, amongst hundreds of songs and ballads, of the ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’ and ‘Red Sails in the Sunset.’

  400th Anniversary Celebrations - June 2008

The four oldest Church bells were cast in Taunton in 1608 by George Purdue, probably in our churchyard. June 2008 saw  the celebration of the 400th Anniversary of their casting and hanging. A major Festival was held over the week-end of 13th - 15th June 2008 with fun and games, a lot of ringing, including on the visiting Lichfield Mobile Belfry, stalls and a hog roast on the Saturday evening. A book on the history of our bells, bell ringing and the lore of ringing is available from church contacts, price £4.50.