Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church dating to the late 12th century, with additions and alterations made in the 14th century and a substantial restoration in 1876 by J.P. Pritchett. It is constructed of red sandstone, with dressed medieval masonry on the chancel and part of the south aisle, and mainly tooled squared stone in harrow courses from 1876. The roofs are covered with large Welsh slates. The church comprises a nave, a separately-roofed south aisle, a chancel, a west tower, an organ chamber/vestry, and a porch. The 1876 restoration introduced pointed windows primarily with geometrical tracery.

The diagonally-buttressed, four-stage tower has two-light bell openings, an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles, and a stair turret on the north side. The two-bay nave has a fragmentary chamfered plinth and a steep roof. The two-bay south aisle features a pointed, chamfered doorway behind the porch and a two-light window with an original monolithic head on the south side. The east return of the aisle displays a restored window with intersecting tracery, and the roof is steeply pitched. The lower, narrower two-bay chancel has a restored Priest's door on the south side, flanked by square-headed two-light windows, with the east window retaining its original jambs and shouldered rear-arch. The original plinth and quoins are visible at the east end, alongside a 1876 three-light window. The organ chamber/vestry has a pent roof and a truncated stack. The gabled porch features a pointed, double-chamfered doorway under a hoodmould with head stops.

Inside, the nave and chancel have arch-braced roofs from 1876. The aisle arcade consists of two original double-chamfered, pointed arches on a central octagonal pier and respond corbels. A restored aisle piscina retains two original bowls. A pointed piscina with a projecting bowl is found in the chancel. Elaborate late 19th-century fittings include a pulpit and font. The church also contains fragments of a pre-Conquest hogback, possibly a 11th-century hexagonal font, a small brass commemorating Mary Wyvill who died in 1668, and an aedicular wall monument commemorating Cuthbert Routh who died in 1752 by Richard Fisher. A stained glass window dated 1876 and made by O'Connor and Taylor, depicting Rev. John Surtees, is located at the east end of the aisle. Within the porch are fragments of a pre-Conquest cross-shaft, a large grave slab belonging to Goselynus Surtees who died in 1366, and a two-light window head from the chancel.