Parish Church Of St John The Baptist

The Parish Church of St John the Baptist is a Grade II* listed building located in Broughton. The west tower dates back to 1533, while the nave was rebuilt in 1822, and the chancel along with attached offices were constructed in 1906 by the architectural firm Austin and Paley. The church is built from sandstone, with the tower made of coursed blocks, the nave of ashlar, and the chancel of rock-faced stone, all topped with slate roofs.

The church features a three-stage embattled tower with diagonal buttresses that taper as they rise, and a full-height south-west stair turret. The tower includes a moulded arched west door, a three-light Perpendicular window with tracery above it, and a three-light belfry louvre on each side. There are loop-lights in the stair turret and a parapet string course dated 1533 on the south side, adorned with small gargoyles at the corners.

The nave is designed in the Early English style and is divided into five bays by shallow buttresses. Each bay contains a large lancet window with deeply splayed reveals, and hoodmoulds and sillbands that extend to the buttresses. The second and fourth bays on the north side have doors beneath raised sills of shortened windows. The full-height chancel and gabled organ chamber on the south side, designed by Austin and Paley, exhibit the Perpendicular style typical of their work, featuring square-headed traceried windows, stepped string-courses, and battlements. The tall three-light east window has a stepped transom, and the band below the string course in the gable of the organ chamber includes re-set 16th-century carved stones with shields and initials, believed to belong to the Singleton, Barton, Langton, and Redmayne families.

Inside, the church has a Perpendicular tower arch and above it, the gable-line of a much smaller former nave. The interior features a flat ceiling and a tub font, which was removed in the early 19th century and used as a flower vase but was restored in 1887 on a new pedestal; this font is said to be of Saxon origin. This is likely the third church built on this site since the 12th century.