St John the Baptist Axbridge

Light Perceptions

Origins: C15th, rebuilt C17th
Listed: Grade I
Simon Jenkins: 
★★★
Project Type: Interior Relighting Project
Project cost: circa £67,000 ex VAT and fees
Completed: December 2011
Case Study No: 3241

St John’s Church is a picture postcard historic church in this pretty Somerset market town.

The new lighting scheme was conceived using the existing, but rather small, nave pendants as a key to the new design. In the new scheme the original pendants have been relocated from the nave to the Lady Chapel and larger, more appropriately sized fittings have been introduced.

The wonderfully ornate nave ceiling dictated that there could be no surface mounted fittings in the body of the church. Accordingly, and as a result of lengthy discussions with English Heritage, the new pendants were suspended from the apices of the nave arcades using specially designed brackets.

The result is a new and very impressive lighting scheme which retains the historic ambience of the earlier lighting yet fulfils the needs of this modern and busy parish church.

Posted On: July 14, 2014