Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church dating to 1752, built on the site of an earlier medieval chapel. Between 1881 and 1883, the chancel was extended by Ewan Christian. The church is constructed of varied stone rubble with ashlar dressings, with an ashlar west front and tower. The roof is of graduated Lakeland slates with stone gable copings.

The church comprises a west tower, a galleried nave, and a chancel with a north vestry. The three-stage west tower has quoins to the first stage and angle pilasters to the third. It features a 6-panelled double door with a radial bar fanlight, set within a round-headed surround with key and impost blocks. Similar surrounds are found to the windows in the second stage and to the paired, round-headed bell openings – one of which contains a painted round clock. The side elevations incorporate square-headed stone surrounds to ground-floor windows and round-headed surrounds with key and impost blocks to the gallery windows. The chancel replicates this detailing, and also has a round-headed south door. Most windows contain broad glazing bars, with pictorial glass in some gallery windows and the east window. A gallery floor-level band is present. The pyramidal tower roof has slightly swept eaves and an east stone cross finial, with a wide stone gutter at ground level.

Inside, the walls have painted plaster above a rough-rendered dado, with tooled ashlar dressings. The nave ceiling is plastered with a central coved section between columns. The chancel has a wood-panelled barrel-vaulted ceiling. A gallery has been removed. Two tall Tuscan columns are in each aisle, with tooled lower sections on chamfered plinths. The chancel arch is round, keyed, and sits upon impost blocks and pilasters, with similar treatment to the inner west door and a blocked window above. A south chancel medallion glass window, dating to 1867, commemorates Rev. James Green and is signed Ox and Son, London, displaying a Maltese cross. An early 19th-century chamber organ by Nicholson of Newcastle remains. Memorials include a white marble scroll on a black mount to the Robson family, signed G. Maile and Son, Euston Road, London, and a brass in a Gothic frame commemorating Lieutenant John Brumwell, 1785-1812, who died in the Peninsular War. C18 painted creed and commandment panels flank the chancel arch, and a pater board is located above.