Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a parish church built between 1833 and 1834, designed by Anthony Salvin, and largely rebuilt and extended from 1881 to 1882 by C. Hodgson Fowler, who also reconstructed the tower from 1891 to 1900. The church is constructed from dressed sandstone and features Welsh slate roofs along with a green slate roof on the tower. It has a disengaged west tower, a continuous aisled nave, and a chancel, with north and south porches at the west end, all designed in the Early English style with lancets under hoodmoulds.

The three-stage west tower is characterized by chamfered bands and set-back buttresses. The first stage includes a roll-moulded, pointed-arched doorway supported by paired colonnettes, with three lancets above. The north return features a datestone from 1900. The second stage has circular clock faces and paired lancets on the north side. The belfry contains three louvred lancets, a corbelled parapet, and a pyramidal roof. There is also a flat, two-stage stair turret on the south return.

The church has a four-bay nave and a two-bay chancel. The buttressed aisles are adorned with paired lancets, a sill string, and a continuous hoodmould. The north aisle has a blank east bay with a pointed-arched vestry doorway to the west. The two eastern bays of the south aisle house the organ chamber and Lady chapel. The roofs feature coped gables, and the single lancets of the 1833 nave flank the west tower. There are low single-bay porches with monopitch roofs at the re-entrant angles between the nave and aisles, each with doorways that have shouldered lintels under pointed arches. The east end has a triple-gabled design, and the projecting chancel showcases three stepped lancets, along with a sexfoil window in the south aisle return and a two-light plate-tracery window on the north aisle return.

Inside, the church has a plain and plastered interior with a spacious nave and aisles. The four-bay north arcade features chamfered, pointed arches that die into octagonal piers, while the six-bay south arcade is similar. The nave roof is ceiled with braced tie beams, and the aisle roofs have arch-braced tie beams and collars. The raised sanctuary is set under a depressed pointed arch, and there is a semi-octagonal stone pulpit.

The church contributes to the townscape, although the buildings attached to the east end are not of special interest.