Church Of Saint John The Baptist

Church of Saint John the Baptist

A church of significant antiquity, with a mid-11th century tower and nave forming the core of the building. The nave arcades date from the 12th century, while the aisles and tower parapet were added in the 14th and 14th-15th centuries respectively. The nave was re-roofed in 1825. In 1887, the architect John Oldrid Scott undertook substantial works, restoring the north aisle and rebuilding the vestry, porch, and chancel.

The structure is constructed from coursed limestone rubble with dressed stone blocks and ashlar dressings. The chancel and nave carry plain tile roofs, while the vestry has a slate roof. The porch is timber-framed.

The plan comprises a west tower, a three-bay aisled nave with south porch and north vestry, and a three-bay chancel with an organ chamber on its north side.

The tower is four stages high, articulated by quoins and plain string courses between stages. The tall first stage features a round-headed west door with a plain hoodmould and a keyhole slit above. The second stage has twin round-headed belfry openings on the north and west sides, each with a cylindrical mid-wall shaft and cushion capitals; the blocked opening on the south side retains a later medieval chamfered shaft. The third stage contains inserted twin pointed belfry openings with triangular and round heads, chamfered reveals and shafts. The stepped-in top stage displays prominent gargoyles at the angles, a moulded cornice, and an embattled parapet with crocketed angle pinnacles.

The south aisle has a chamfered plinth, moulded cill band, and buttresses. Its windows are pointed three-light openings with Perpendicular tracery; those on the east and west walls have prominent gargoyles above.

The north aisle features two square-headed three-light windows and pointed three-light east and west windows, all with 19th-century Reticulated tracery.

The chancel has quoins, chamfered plinth, cill band, and buttresses. It is lit by trefoil-headed three-light lancets with hoodmoulds, alongside pointed three-light east and west windows with 19th-century Reticulated tracery. It also has an arched priest's door and stepped lancets at the east end.

The south porch has a chamfered ashlar plinth and a shafted outer doorway flanked by panels and traceried sidelights. The roof is open, featuring king-posts, curved struts, and carved bargeboards. Traceried lights light the sides of the porch. The porch floor contains an inlaid stone copy of the nearby Julian's Bower turf maze, made in the 19th century. The inner door is 12th-century work with three orders of shafts (the outer shafts being 19th-century replacements) with stiff-leaf capitals. The pointed arch is moulded with keeled, roll, and dog-tooth mouldings; the hoodmould carries billet moulding.

Inside, the tower arch is round-headed and contains re-used Roman moulded stone for its bases and imposts. The north and south arcades have pointed double-chamfered arches rising from quatrefoil piers with water-holding bases and circular plinths. The north arcade piers have plain moulded capitals, while those of the south arcade have fine stiff-leaf capitals. The chancel arch is a 19th-century pointed moulded feature with shafted responds and foliate capitals.

The chancel interior is ornate in Early English style, with side lancets set in shafted arcades and east lancets with dividing shafts beneath a moulded pointed arch. The floor is laid with polychrome encaustic tiles. The nave and aisles have 19th-century plastered ceilings with moulded cornices, while the chancel retains an open-framed roof.

The church contains a cylindrical Norman font standing on a 19th-century moulded column and medieval octagonal base. Inside the south door is a rectangular medieval holy water stoup, approximately 50 centimetres high, decorated with mutilated relief carving.