The church is situated without the city walls, a short distance from the Newgate; it stands upon an elevation overhanging the north bank of the Dee, and the churchyard commands a beautiful and extensive prospect.
This church, with its adjoining ruins, is the most interesting of the ecclesiastical buildings of Chester.
The foundation of the church is ascribed by Webb to Ethelred, Ring of Mercia, and stated, on the authority of Giraldus, to have taken place in the year 689. The MS. chronicle of St. Werburgh makes a similar statement on the same authority; it is also adopted by the author of ‘Polycronicon,’ and thus quaintly recorded—
“The year of grace six hundred fourscore nine,
So saith my author, a Briton, Giraldus,
King Etheldred, minding most the bliss of heaven,
Edified a college church, notable and famous,
In the suburbs of Chester, pleasant and beauteous,
In the honour of God, and the Baptist St. John,
With the help of Bishop Wulfrice, and good exhortation.”
This inscription is now affixed to a pillar on the north side of the church. With respect to its foundation by Ethelred, we find the following curious passage, quoted from an early writer by King and others:—“King Ethelred minding to build a church, was told that where he should see a white hind there he should build a church; which white hind he saw in the place where St. John’s Church now standeth, and in remembrance whereof, his picture was placed in the wall of the said church, which yet standeth on the side of the steeple, towards the west, having a white hind in his hand.”
According to William of Malmsbury, St. John’s was repaired and richly endowed by Leofric, Earl of Mercia, in 1057, and it is shortly afterwards thus noticed in Doomsday Book:—“Ecclesia Sancti Johanius, in civitate habét viii. domos, quietas ab omné consuetudine: una ex his est matricularii ecclesiæ; aliæ sunt canonicorum.” The seat of the See, which for some centuries after the conquest fluctuated between Chester, Coventry, and Lichfield, was, in 1075, fixed for a time in the Church of St. John, by Peter, then Bishop, which may be taken as a sufficient proof of the wealth and grandeur of the foundation, even at this early period. The succeeding Bishop, Robert de Limesey, having removed the seat of the See to Coventry, St. John’s returned to its former collegiate establishment, but was long afterwards considered and denominated one of the three Cathedrals of the diocese, and retained in its immediate neighbourhood a palace of the Bishop, and the mansion of the Archdeacon of Chester—the remains of its former importance. At the dissolution in 1547, the college consisted of one dean, seven prebends, four vicars, a clerk, and a sexton. “In this church,” says Dr. Cowper, “was an ancient rood, or image of wood, of such veneration, that in a deed dated March 27, 1311, confirmed by Walter Langton, the church was called the Church of the Holy Cross and St. John.” “There can be little doubt, on the whole,” says Ormerod, “that some monastic foundation, dedicated to the Holy Cross, had, previously to this, merged in the college of St. John.” In 1468 the old steeple, which stood between the nave and the chancel, fell in, and destroyed great part of the choir. In 1470 the steeple was rebuilt, and the whole church covered with lead at the expense of the parishioners, to whom certain immunities were granted by the Dean on that account. In 1548, a commission was granted to certain gentlemen of Cheshire to survey the colleges, &c., within the county; in virtue whereof a return (now in the Augmentation Office) was made, wherein the annual rent of the college of St. John, arising from lands, tithes, &c., is reckoned at £146 5s. The church plate is estimated in the same return at 465 ounces; the weight of the five bells, 4,000 lbs.; lead in and upon the church, 78 tons; and goods and ornaments for the use of the clergy to the value of £40 19s. 9d. In 1572, the greater part of the central steeple again fell in; and in 1574, part of the steeple at the west end of the church also gave way, whereby great part of the church was destroyed. After being suffered to remain in a ruinous state for some years, the parishioners obtained a grant of the church from Queen Elizabeth in 1581, whereupon they repaired and reduced it to its present size and form, by taking down the remains of the central steeple, and cutting off the south and north transepts and all the chapels above the choir. In 1585, the Queen granted the impropriate rectory and advowson to Sir Christopher Halton, by whom it was conveyed to Alexander King, who, in 1587, conveyed it to Alexander Cotes, whose daughter brought it by marriage to the family of the Sparkes, in 1597; in which family it continued until the year 1810, when it was sold by their representative, John Adams, Esq., to the late Marquis of Westminster, who, in 1813, rebuilt the north and south transepts, and repaired the chancel, in which he introduced a Gothic window over the altar.
“St. Johns, when entire,” says Pennant, “was a magnificent pile. The tower once stood in the centre, but falling down in 1574, was never rebuilt.” “The church,” says Ormerod, “was in the finest style of early Norman architecture; it consisted originally of a nave and choir, with side aisles, two transepts, and a central tower, &c.”
On each side of the chancel were added, at a later period, chapels in a rich style of pointed Gothic, in which some exquisite specimens of shrine work are yet remaining.
The nave and choir, fitted up and repaired in 1581, as before mentioned, now form the parish church, in which public worship is celebrated. Eight arches, resting on pillars 5 feet 6 inches in circumference, with capitals variously ornamented, separate the nave from the side aisles; and above these are two rows of galleries, with pointed arches, springing from light shafts. Four massive composite pillars, which formerly supported the central tower, still remain in the nave. In the interior are some interesting relics of the architecture of our Norman ancestors.
The belfry is detached from the church, at the north-west corner of which it is situate. It is a square tower, erected in the seventeenth century, 150 feet in height. It is extremely lofty, and its sides are decorated with pointed windows in a good style, figures placed in rich shrines, strings of quatrefoils and rows of ornamental arches; in one of the niches on the west side is placed a statue which has excited much controversy. It is much defaced by time and exposure to the weather.