Church Of St John

The Church of St John dates to 1875, with a tower added between 1887 and 1889, both designed by John Douglas. It is constructed of dressed coursed buff sandstone with red sandstone dressings, and has a red tile roof. The church comprises a 5-bay nave and aisles, a 2-bay chancel, a vestry to the south, and a chapel to the north, as well as south and north porches and a 4-stage west tower.

The south porch is timber-framed and rests on a stone base, featuring panelled bargeboards, a toothed tiebeam, and chevron work in the gable. The aisle bays are divided by buttresses and contain pairs of double or triple lancet windows with trefoil or cinquefoil heads. A clerestory runs above, featuring nine regularly placed lancet windows beneath a continuous label mould. Similar windows and Caernarvon arched doorways are present in the vestry. The east end features a large arch on raking pilasters, encompassing a triple lancet window with minimal tracery, the lights being divided by chamfered pilasters with stopped heads. The north side mirrors the south.

The tower has heavy clasping pilasters, one of which incorporates a stair turret and rises above the tower’s top. A 3-light west window contains a sexfoil panel. The second stage features some partially blind arcading, a clock on the third, and a pair of trefoil headed louvred bell openings in the top stages, each with triangular hoods and ball flower finials. An embattled parapet sits atop corbels.

The interior is of rubble stone with ashlar dressings. A 5-bay arcade features chamfered arches on alternate circular and octagonal piers. The pairs of aisle windows have splayed reveals and pointed heads, with a colonnette between each pair. Splayed reveals are also present at the clerestory windows. The nave has a wagon roof. The simple tower arch is carried on corbels and features a wooden Gothic screen with drop tracery. A double chancel arch sits on short colonnettes. The chancel has a pair of unequal arches on an octagonal pier leading to the north chapel, and a further pair provides access to the organ and vestry. A plaster and wooden reredos depicting the Last Supper is set within a Gothic gilded frame. The chancel roof is panelled.