Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist at Edlingham

This parish church has a long and complex building history spanning from the mid-11th century to the 19th century. The nave probably dates to the mid-11th century and was partly rebuilt in the early 12th century; the chancel is later 12th century; the north arcade dates to around 1190; the tower to around 1300; and there is a 14th-century south window and tomb recess in the nave. The north aisle was rebuilt in the 15th century, the south porch is probably 17th century, and various 18th-century sash windows with wood tracery were inserted during a 1902 restoration. A 19th-century vestry and an 1864 east window are later additions.

The building is constructed of large roughly-squared stone with south-west quoins, perhaps reused gravestones, up to 2 metres long, with other parts in squared stone and cut dressings. The nave and chancel have low-pitched felted roofs, whilst other roofs are Welsh slate. The plan comprises a west tower, nave with north aisle and vestry, south porch, and chancel.

The three-stage west tower has a stepped chamfered plinth with a band above it and a chamfered set-back below the squat belfry. The lower stage has a small rebated lancet on the south side only, whilst the upper stages have slatted chamfered loops except on the east, which shows weathering from an old high-pitched roof. The tower is topped by a low pyramidal roof.

The gabled south porch has a chamfered plinth and features a round arch with keystone and chamfered imposts, below which is a small square window flanked by reset head corbels. Inside the porch are stone benches and a barrel vault springing from a chamfered band. A 12th-century doorway has a round arch with bold roll moulding and billet hood on jamb shafts with block capitals and moulded bases. Within the arch is a 17th-century doorway with a flat-pointed head and sunk spandrels, with a vertical-panelled door. Above the porch is a chamfered loop; to either side are square-headed 18th-century windows, and further east a pointed double-chamfered 14th-century window arch, all with later wood tracery. The north aisle has a blocked north door with chamfered pointed arch and a square-headed east window.

The chancel has an 18th-century south window with pointed arch and raised stone surround, and a large Romanesque-style east window with round arch, zigzag ornament, and jamb shafts.

Interior

The interior is plastered throughout. The nave has a four-bay north arcade of round arches with chamfered inner and square outer orders. The round piers and semicircular responds have moulded capitals with vertical lines of nail-head imitating scallops, and moulded bases with nail-head decoration. A round 12th-century chancel arch, stepped towards the nave, stands on chamfered imposts carried back along the east wall of the nave. A low stone screen with a central opening, featuring chamfered and rebated jambs, separates the nave from the chancel.

The south wall of the nave shows a segmental-arched tomb recess, which holds a pre-Conquest cross fragment with vinescroll and a 14th-century cross slab, along with the remains of several blocked windows. The 11th-century west front, now within the tower, shows a centre door with a slightly-recessed semicircular tympanum, a mutilated round-headed window above, and a circular opening in the apex of the former gable. In the north aisle is a chamfered band below the east window, and the rear arch of a 12th-century west window above the vestry door. The chancel contains a small piscina with pointed moulded arch and a pointed recess further west.

The chancel roof has later boarding on a grid of stop-chamfered tie-beams and longitudinal members, probably dating to the 17th century. An early 20th-century tie-beam roof covers the nave. Most fittings are of similar modern date, except for balustraded communion rails of 1726. An octagonal medieval font, inscribed "1701", stands on a circular stepped base. An 11th or 12th-century cross slab in the aisle and a 14th-century slab serving as the threshold to the south door are also present. Eighteenth-century wall monuments and hatchments are positioned at the west end of the nave and east end of the chancel, with a 1723 ledger stone just inside the south door. The east window contains glass depicting "The Sea Gave up the Dead which were in it", a memorial to Lewis de Crespigny Buckle, who perished on the S.S. Nemesis.