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An
utterly delightful church, easily missed among
its more illustrious neighbours, the Wiggenhalls
and Tilney All Saints. And inevitably, Terrington
St John is an architecturally poor cousin to
Terrington St Clement, but not without interest,
including the extraordinary sequence of rooms
built into the base of the tower and the west of
the south aisle. They climb through four storeys,
the top one being like a workman’s hut in
the roof of the aisle. They are supposed to be a
priest house, which I suppose is as likely as
anything else. Pevsner suggests that the tower
was once separate from the church, and that this
group of rooms linked them together. There is
something similar nearby at Tilney All Saints,
although there it is wholly internal. Seen close
up, there is something almost industrial about
it, as if it was a little mester's house and
workshop on the banks of the Sheaf.
The clerestory is a sequence of alternating
circular and arched windows. The cement rendering
gives it rather a bleak feel, but there are lots
of little details that leaven it, including a
rood stair turret on the north side. Inside, the
church is full of light, the vast 17th century
font looking like it might spring a fountain at
any moment. The brick floors and simple,
devotional fittings are a delight. The chancel is
as vast as that at nearby Wiggenhall St Mary.Everything
is clean and neat; Victorianised, but much of the
feel is of the 20th century. I liked it a lot.
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