Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St. John the Baptist is a parish church mainly dating from the 14th century, built in the late Decorated style. It is constructed from ironstone rubble with ashlar dressings throughout. The church comprises a west tower with a spire, a nave with a south aisle, and a chancel.

The west tower is of large, squared rubble with three stages and buttresses, resting on an ashlar plinth. It features an ogee-arched west window with fleuron detail and three trefoiled lights, the outer two now blind. A large, double-tiered light illuminates the bell chamber, featuring triple shafts and a hoodmould, with the lower pair of lights ogee arched and the upper trefoiled, topped with a decorated lozenge. The embattled parapet has a cornice frieze, partially renewed, and incorporates gargoyles. A small, recessed spire rises above, featuring two tiers of lucarnes.

The south doorway is located within a porch, the lower portion of which is likely from the 14th century and rebuilt in the 19th century. The doorway itself has a hollow-moulded arch without capitals. Aisle windows have three trefoiled lights set within simpler intersecting tracery. A similar west window is now blocked. A large, unusually placed gargoyle is visible on the west wall, and another is situated to the east. Buttresses and two string courses are present. The fabric of the chancel may be of earlier origin and includes a round arched priest’s door with voussoirs and windows featuring simple intersecting tracery. The sill course serves as a hoodmould for the doorway. The east window contains three lights with intersecting tracery, complemented by a single lancet and two trefoiled lights in a square-headed opening on the north side. The east gable is coped and topped with a cross.

On the north wall of the nave, the fabric is of coursed squared rubble, notably tall and buttressed. Windows are set high, exhibiting fine reticulated Decorated tracery. A blocked north doorway retains a hoodmould and corbel heads.

Inside, the nave has four bays. The south arcade is of late Decorated style, with double-chamfered arches and hoodmoulds resting on slender octagonal columns. The west tower arch appears to be earlier, notably wide, with four chamfers. The inner chamfer rises from a shaft, while the others originate from a chamfered respond with a linearly carved capital. A buttress is situated to the south of the arch, and a fragment of a stone rib is found to the north, seemingly a remnant of a former roof with a steeper pitch, visible externally against the tower wall. The nave roof is likely from the 15th century, featuring moulded trusses with braces supported by 19th-century carved wooden angels, along with bosses. A piscina with ogee arch, flamelike fleurons, and a finial, alongside two aumbreys, are found in the south aisle. The chancel arch is wide and double-chamfered, resting on slender shafted responds. A fragment of wall painting is located in the southwest corner. The chancel contains simply turned 17th-century altar rails, fragments of old stained glass in the east window, and a figure of St. John the Baptist by Kempe, dating to 1896. A Norman font, a small round tub with interlaced arcading beneath interlocking circles, sits on an octagonal base.