Cirencester Parish Church, Gloucestershire (1)

Cirencester Parish Church, Gloucestershire (1)
Originally uploaded by ChurchCrawler

A couple of my friends wanted to look around antique shops yesterday so I went along too. I was intrigued to see what was happening at St John the Baptist church in Cirencester, which has been undergoing some major restoration works in the last few months, and is a few doors along from the Antiques Centre. This famous C15 wool church appeared as usual from the outside (apart from large boards to the west of the tower about the restoration work). This view shows the largest church porch in England, three-storeyed, wih multiple rooms, built by Cirencester Abbey as meeting rooms to conduct its business, and among its uses after the dissolution was the Town Hall of Cirencester, a name which has since stuck. The entrance, fan-vaulted, is more like the cloister walk at Gloucester cathedral, and interestingly the porch is almost detached from the aisle, something I had not appreciated before. Once inside it was evident that the restoration is still proceeding but work in the nave and south aisle is completed to the point that visitors can now enter here again and services are held in this part of the church once more.