Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church largely dating from 1866, designed by Joseph Goddard of Leicester. It incorporates some remains from an earlier church. The fabric is constructed from coursed ironstone rubble with a steeply pitched Welsh slate roof. The church consists of a single-celled structure with a western bell turret and a chancel only slightly narrower than the nave. The bell turret has paired gables, and the west wall features a massive central buttress flanked by two outer buttresses. Foiled lancet windows are situated to either side of the central buttress. The south windows are in the Perpendicular style, featuring squared stilted hood moulds with label stops, which are likely restorations of original windows. A south door is set within a buttressed and coped gabled porch with a scissor-braced roof and an inner chamfered arched doorway. This doorway represents a fragment of the earlier church, believed to be from the 13th or 14th century, displaying corbel heads. The chancel windows also follow the Perpendicular style, with stilted hood moulds terminating in angel label stops. The east wall features slim buttresses, and the three-light east window is in the Decorated style. Ridge cresting and a coped eastern gable are topped with a cross finial. The north wall mirrors the south in detailing, with a high Victorian gothic gabled chimney to the east, and a possible mediaeval lancet window. A blocked north doorway also remains, with heavy corbel heads.

Inside, the detailing is characteristic of the High Victorian style, with a nave roof of king post construction, featuring long raking braces supported on ornate corbels and frequent secondary rafters. A continuous moulded sill band runs throughout the nave. A piscina is set in the north wall; the ogee arched recess is Victorian, while the basin is a surviving mediaeval feature. The chancel is only slightly structurally separated from the nave, but is distinguished by a wooden chancel arch resembling a massive roof truss, supported by stone foliate corbels. The chancel roof is richly timbered with scissor bracing. There is a small Victorian sedilia and a mediaeval piscina, featuring an ogee arch with a crouching figure supporting the basin. Fittings, including pews and the pulpit, likely date from 1866. Stained glass is present in one north nave lancet (1863) and the chancel east window (1867), works by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The east window depicts scenes from the life of St John the Baptist and is richly coloured with a Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic. The font may be mediaeval, featuring a plain octagonal basin and base.