Listed Building record MDR12165 - Church of St John the Evangelist, Marple Road, Charlesworth

The parish church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, was erected in 1849, as a cost of £2,700. It is a cruciform structure, comprising nave, chancel, north and south transepts, and tower, but possesses no architectural beauty. (1) This church was built in 1848-9 by Joseph Mitchell. It is built of coursed squared gritstone with gritstone dressings. It has slate roofs with stone coped gables. It is cruciform in shape. It has a nave and lower apsed chancel, a south transept and a north tower. There is a north porch and vestry on the south side of the Chancel. It is still in the pre-archaeological lancet style rather than Early English. It has pairs of lancets and stepped triplets. There are buttresses with two set-offs between each pair of windows. The tower has angle buttresses and a north east polygonal stair turret. There are no battlements, and there is stained glass in the tripartite west window. (2) In 1845 the routine of the village of Charlesworth was disrupted by the arrival of the Rev. Goodwin Purcell, a member of the Established Church. His two main purposes in coming to the village were firstly to build a church, and secondly to 'root out dissent'. The chapel-goers took little notice, but ill feeling from these early days lead to rivalry between the Church and Chapel (SMR 3607) in later years. Thankfully, the two establishments survive side by side today [1985]. (3)