Former Church Of St John The Baptist

The former Church of St John the Baptist, now offices, was built between 1859 and 1860 by Weightman and Hadfield, with extensions added between 1900 and 1901 by W J Sykes of Hoyland. The building is constructed of coursed, dressed sandstone, with Welsh slate roofs, and is designed in the Gothic Revival style.

The church originally comprised a four-bay nave with north and south aisles, each with its own double-pitched roof. A south porch is located beneath a tower with a spire. At the east end is a lower two-bay chancel, originally accompanied by a north vestry and organ chamber; the south Lady Chapel has since been removed.

The tower is square, with angle buttresses to the lower stage and a pointed arch porch doorway on the south side. Above the doorway is an offset band below an upper stage featuring two-light cusped and trefoiled louvres. A broach spire with lucarnes rises above, incorporating a vice (spiral staircase) in the angle with the south aisle. The south aisle features a chamfered plinth and a buttress between each bay. Three two-light cusped and pierced plate tracery windows with plain hoodmoulds and polychromatic arches are present. The north aisle has similar detailing, with a shallow lean-to section at the left-hand end, and three modern skylights to the outer pitch of its roof. Both aisles have pointed arch windows to their west gable walls, featuring three-light cusped and cinquefoil tracery. The north vestry, under a continuous aisle roof, has a matching window in its east gable wall. The nave projects at the west end. The west window is large, with four cusped lights and a king mullion, topped by a sunken roundel pierced with three trefoils. The Lady Chapel, removed from the south side of the chancel, originally connected with the south aisle and chancel by pointed arches which are now glazed to create external windows. The chancel also has a chamfered plinth and angle buttresses, with a four-light east window featuring Geometric tracery, plain hoodmoulds, and polychromatic arches, alongside a two-light cusped and pierced plate tracery window in the south elevation. The church is finished with corbelled kneelers and coped gables with intermediate stepped kneelers.

Inside, a four-bay arcade with pointed arches separates the nave from the aisles. The columns have chamfered bases and moulded capitals. An internal three-light window is situated above the pointed chancel arch. The nave and aisles have scissor-braced roofs, while the chancel ceiling is plastered. The chancel contains encaustic tiled flooring and a Gothic-style concrete reredos. A timber pulpit with Gothic detailing is positioned on the left-hand side of the chancel arch. Most of the windows retain stained glass, though the nave and inner pitches of the aisles have modern skylights.