This church gets a lot of visitors for several reasons, one of which is what happened here one autumn afternoon in 1948. While the children were out playing in the school yard across the street, the great tower and spire of St John tottered, crumbled, and came crashing down into the church below. It must have been absolutely spectacular. Just imagine being six years old and watching that happen! By the time the dust had settled, it was obvious that the damage was considerable, although by some miracle the early 16th century Bedingfield Chapel to the south of the chancel had survived. The former tower and nave area have been grassed over now, the north arcade and aisle wall retained as the kind of collonade you might expect to find in an Italian hill town, the chancel given a new west wall and the Bedingfield chapel given its own entrance. The overall effect is rather lovely, a cluster of ecclesiastical buildings in a garden. From the road it almost has a post-modern feel to it, the sort of thing that Daniel Libeskind might have produced for Salford Quays.
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