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St John the Baptist Church in Inglesham, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, has Anglo-Saxon origins but most of the current structure was built around 1205. Much of the church has not changed since the medieval era. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant on 1 April 1980 and was vested in the Trust on 28 October 1981. The church is just above the surrounding water meadows next to the confluence of the River Thames, River Coln and the Thames and Severn Canal. St John's was a particular favourite of John Betjeman an English poet, writer and broadcaster who was a founding member of the Victorian Society and Poets Laureate. Richard Taylor presenter of BBC Four's ''Churches: How To Read Them'' picked Inglesham as his favourite of the hundreds of churches he visited for the television programme,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.churchmonumentssociety.org/Other_events.html )〕 saying "It was a totally unassuming building, sat in the middle of the countryside. But, despite its humble appearance, inside, this church told the story of over 1,000 years of religious history – from Anglo-Saxon carvings on one wall, to medieval wall paintings on another and then passages from the Bible etched elsewhere from the Reformation." The programme also presented resistance by a local artist, William Morris, a founder of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings against Victorian redevelopment as a story of local campaigning in the 1880s. Much of the fabric of the building is from the 13th century, but includes remains of an earlier church on the site. The interior includes wall paintings spanning over 600 years and often one of top of the other up to seven layers thick. There is also a carving of the Mother and Child which dates from the Anglo-Saxon era. Until 1910 the carving was on the outside of the church attached to the south wall and used as a sundial. There are also historic box pews, pulpit and memorials. ==History== In 1205 King John gave the church to the Cistercian monks of Beaulieu Abbey. In 1231 Pope Gregory IX granted a licence, appropriating the church at Inglesham, amongst others, to the abbey of Beaulieu at the request of Henry III. In 1355 the manors of Inglesham was granted a hospital in honour of the Annunciation of St. Mary, Newark. In the 1880s a major restoration of the church was planned. William Morris, an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement, who lived miles away at Kelmscott in Oxfordshire, campaigned to save the building without unsympathetic alterations. This resulted not just in support but also and unusually a fund-raising campaign by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.spab.org.uk/what-is-spab-/history-of-the-spab/ )〕 The Society was established in 1877 and its manifesto,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.spabfim.org.uk/data/files/pages/spab_principles.pdf )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.spab.org.uk/what-is-spab-/the-manifesto/ )〕 which Morris wrote, set out its principles ‘to stave off decay by daily care … and otherwise to resist all tampering with either the fabric or ornament of the building as it stands’. They employed J.T. Micklethwaite to oversee the work during 1888 and 1889.〔 Oswald Birchall undertook a survey of the church which enabled Morris and John Henry Middleton to prepare a report for SPAB in 1885 suggesting the repairs be funded as the rector George Woodbury Spooner said that it was beyond the means of the parishioners. Further restoration by Percival Hartland Thomas was carried out in 1933 to replace the remains of the reredos from around 1330 in the chancel.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.swindonuk.co.uk/historydetail.php?id=51105&f=Swindon )〕 The church was declared redundant in 1979 and vested in the Redundant Churches Fund (which has since become the Churches Conservation Trust) in 1981.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St John the Baptist Church, Inglesham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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