Parish Church of St John the Baptist is a Grade II* listed building in the Preston local planning authority area, England. First listed on 11 November 1966. A Medieval Church. 1 related planning application.

Parish Church of St John the Baptist

WRENN ID
low-step-owl
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Preston
Constituency
Ribble Valley MP: Maya Ellis (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
11 November 1966
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Church Lane, Broughton
OS grid reference
SD 528 343
Coordinates
53.80353, -2.71665
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

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.

Local climate

Parish Church of St John the Baptist sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,300 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 92% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 60% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
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  • Related listed building consents — 1 application
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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