Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a Roman Catholic church built in 1906 by architect Parxour. It is constructed from snecked stone with flush ashlar bands and dressings, topped with a Welsh slate roof featuring red tile cresting. The church has a six-bay aisled nave that includes a south-west porch and a north-west baptistery, along with a three-bay aisled chancel that has a canted apse within an ambulatory. Designed in the French Gothic style, it features a chamfered plinth and buttresses with stepped coping. The south porch has shouldered doorways, and there are additional doorways projecting to the east and at the east of the ambulatory. Most aisle and baptistery windows consist of two shoulder-arched lights. The west end is notable for its two tall lancets separated by a buttress, with a vesica above and a large moulded finial cross. The clerestorey is adorned with quatrefoiled circles, and there is a cinquefoiled circle above the ambulatory, flanked by pointed lights with cusped vesicas. The division between the nave and chancel is marked by octagonal pinnacles that rise from the aisles and clerestorey walls. The baptistery features a steep pyramidal roof with a wrought-iron finial cross, and a similar finial is found on the apse. A bellcote with a finial cross is positioned above the east door of the ambulatory.

Inside, the arcade arches are narrow and steeply pointed, particularly in the chancel. The church has a high arch-braced timber roof supported by corbelled shafts, while the chancel arch is a more elaborate stone truss on triple shafts. The sanctuary is panelled, and there are carved screens in the chancel arcade. A tall carved reredos features six painted panels of saints, with a central figure of Christ in a niche under a pinnacle. A similar but smaller carved reredos is located in the north Lady Chapel. The pulpit is also carved and includes figures of saints in pinnacled niches. Additionally, there is a well-crafted wrought-iron rail in the baptistery.

The church is said to be modeled on Ostend Cathedral, which the architect and Father Chapman visited. It was built on a concrete raft to mitigate mining subsidence, and both wood and craftsmen were imported from Belgium.