St John the Evangelist's Church, Weston

St John the Evangelist’s Church stands in Weston, once a village now absorbed by Runcorn in Cheshire. Built of local red sandstone under Welsh slate roofs, it has a bold west tower with a short spire and two massive buttresses. The nave has four bays, a narrow north aisle, and a higher chancel with vestries beneath. A south porch is reached by a flight of steps, and the tower carries a clock face above a two-light window. The church was designed by Douglas and Fordham between 1897 and 1898. The church is recognised as a Grade II* listed building and became a separate parish in 1931. Its clock was made by J. B. Joyce of Whitchurch and installed in 1901, later fitted with an automated winding system in 1998. Funds were raised by choirboys who wrote thousands of letters, receiving over 5,000 donations from across the country. Because of this effort it is sometimes called ‘the choirboys’ church’. A framed letter from Robert Baden-Powell congratulates the boys of Weston Village on forming an Anti-Smoking Society in 1900. Inside, the polygonal stone pulpit shows a panel of the Crucifixion, and the octagonal font is also in stone. The east window, by C. E. Kempe, depicts the Crucifixion, while other stained glass includes works by L. A. Pownall and Percy Bacon. The organ, built in 1898 and rebuilt in 1981, occupies the organ chamber north of the chancel. The vestry holds the Baden-Powell letter, and the church’s interior reflects its active Anglican parish life in the diocese of Chester.