St John the Baptist Parish Church Graylands Road, Bilborough, Nottingham, NG8 4FD Magazine Links socialcentre Contacts Events
Website designed and
 maintained by
 Keith and Margaret Wood
© Copyright, 2010 to 2011,
 St John the Baptist
 Parish Church, Bilborough
 Updated January 2012
St John the Baptist, Bilborough Services History Staff St John the Baptist, Bilborough History Staff Services Magazine Events socialcentre Contacts Links
History of St John’s





The history of St John’s Church divides neatly into two parts, separated by a Second World War bomb:
The Victorian Church on Leenside
The modern Church in Bilborough
The first church was built in Victorian times on Leenside. In its heyday it was renowned for a fine choir, the first in Nottingham to wear white surplices over the traditional black cassocks which were the norm of 19th century worship.
A succession of fine vicars gave the church an almost unrivalled drive, making it a model for other, less well-supported churches in the city of Nottingham.  Each Sunday, despite it’s location near Narrow Marsh, the wealthy classes from the Park would rattle over the cobbled streets in their fine carriages as they came to worship.
The incendiary bomb was dropped during the night of 8th May 1941 and by the morning all that was left was a burned out shell. A glorious example of Victorian church architecture had been destroyed overnight.
More about the Victorian church ...









Ten years after the end of the war a temporary church in the form of a wooden hut was consecrated in the grounds  of what is now St John the Baptist church in Bilborough.
Three years later the building of the new church on the corner of Graylands Road and Staverton Road was completed. The new church was consecrated on 21st March 1959.
From a muddy expanse occupied by two ex-army huts that formed the “church in a hut” the area has been developed into a well-developed site including the church, the vicarage and the social centre surrounding a useful green paddock area where outdoor events can be held.
More about the modern church ...
leenside bilborough

A link between old and new


















One relic was salvaged from the burned-out shell of the old church, the treasured Altar Cross. It was made into a Processional Cross and is now used on most Sundays at the new church in Bilborough.