St John's Church

St. John's Church has served Glastonbury for at least eight centuries, predating the Reformation that destroyed the Abbey. Its survival as a parish church ensured continuity of worship even as the monks were dispersed and their buildings demolished. The church preserves relics that connect to Glastonbury's legendary past while maintaining its primary function as a place of living faith.

The origins of St. John's intertwine with Glastonbury's larger sacred history. The church stands on a Saxon site, with the first documented church dating from 1175—though legend attributes the original foundation to Saint Dunstan in the tenth century. Throughout the medieval period, St. John's operated under the Abbey's jurisdiction, one of seven local churches in a special arrangement that made the Abbot the Archdeacon.

The present church emerged from rebuilding in the fifteenth century, with the magnificent tower completed around 1475 under Abbot Selwood. Built of Doulting stone, Street stone, and local Tor burr, it represented the prosperity of late medieval Glastonbury. The church was richly furnished: a silver rood, images in each chapel, costly vestments, 21 chained books including a Caxton first edition.

The Reformation transformed but did not destroy St. John's. While the Abbey was dissolved and the last abbot executed, the parish church continued under new ecclesiastical arrangements. Some of its treasures were dispersed or destroyed, but others survived—including, according to tradition, the cope worn by Abbot Whiting at his death.