Roman Catholic Church Of St Mary And St John The Baptist

The Roman Catholic Church of St Mary and St John the Baptist was built between 1816 and 1819 by John Palmer, with carvings and sculpture by Thomas Owen. It is constructed of ashlar with a low-pitched slate roof. The church is a tall and prominent building in a mixed Gothic style, consisting of a nave with aisles and a polygonal apse.

The west front features a 12th-century style portal of three orders, with a tablet flower and crocketed hoodmould. Above this are three statues on corbels; the underside of the central corbel is a bust of George, Prince Regent, lettered “G R” and dated "MDCCCXIIII". This all sits within a giant arch with dogtooth and small carved figures. A small parapet with quatrefoils separates the wall above, which is set back slightly, and contains an elaborate wheel window. The wall is flanked by octagonal turrets, topped with three-stage pinnacles linked by a parapet of zig-zag openwork that culminates in a crocketed cross. To the left and right of the front are side offices which contain a staircase and vestry, and are elaborately carved with niches bearing the inscriptions "THOMAS OWEN SCULPTOR" and "JOHANNES PALMER ARCHITECTUS." The latter inscription has a hoodmould with sculpted stops portraying the architect's wife and his son. The gable above the wheel window contains three lines of incised uncial lettering.

The five-bay nave and aisles have small buttresses, a stepped triple lancet clerestory with windows, and an openwork lattice parapet. The aisles feature gableted buttresses and embattled parapets, with five-light windows featuring alternating Geometrical and Perpendicular tracery in shafted, deeply-moulded arches, and hoodmoulds with figured stops. The fourth bay on the south side contains a simple priest's door positioned below a half-depth window. The short, polygonal apse has buttresses at the angles and tall five-light Perpendicular windows with transoms.

Inside, the church is high and luminous, with rib-vaulted roofs to the nave and aisles (featuring carved bosses in the centre). The four-bay arcade is comprised of shafted piers and moulded arches with dogtooth ornament. The west end contains a generous internal narthex, presenting a two-bay arcade to the nave—the supporting column rises from the centre of a pedestalled stoup—and carrying a raked choir gallery with an organ at the top. At the east end, a traceried wooden communion rail sits on segmental steps leading to the sanctuary, framed by a very high arch. Large carved reliefs depicting the Beheading of St John and the Magdalen are located on either side of the altar. A carved stone screen is set at the south side, centrally positioned around the priest’s door.

The church was built as a thank offering by John Francis Butler, then owner of Pleasington township, and is said to have cost £23,000. It represents an exceptional form of Catholic chapel for the period before Emancipation, with a very elaborate use of Gothic style and sculpture exhibiting great originality.