Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

Parish church, now closed. The building dates from the 14th century but was largely rebuilt in 1405 following a fire, with restoration undertaken in 1855. It is constructed of squared ironstone and chalk rubble with limestone ashlar dressings, and has lead and plain tiled roofs decorated with fishscale bands.

The church comprises a western tower, nave with clerestory, chancel, south porch, vestry, and north aisle.

The tower is of ironstone and rises in three stages with stepped corner buttresses, a moulded plinth, and an offset to the belfry stage beneath a battlemented parapet. The south side features a projecting stair with vertical slit lights. All sides except the east are lit by single trefoil-headed lights in the middle stage. The belfry stage has paired louvred lights on all sides, each with double chamfered pointed surrounds and embattled transomes with cusped heads and quatrefoils above.

The west doorway is deeply moulded, with an outer concave chamfered order containing a running tendril design with leaves, fruit, and a Pelican in her Piety. The outer edge of this order bears a worn Lombardic inscription reading "Wo so looks thys work upon, pray for all that yt begun". The spandrels contain low relief carvings of a coat of arms, a Paschal banner, and the Fall of Man. The square hood is enriched with fleurons and retains one human figure label stop. Above this is a large 15th-century four-light window with cusped ogee heads to the lights, panel tracery, a moulded surround, and hood.

The west window of the north aisle is 15th-century, comprising two lights with cusped heads, panel tracery, and a concave chamfered surround. In the north wall is a blocked pointed doorway with moulded hood and human head stops, beyond which are three 15th-century windows of three lights with cusped ogee heads, panel tracery, and chamfered surrounds.

The chancel is rendered with a tiled roof. Its north wall contains a 15th-century two-light window with cusped heads to the lights and a moulded hood. Beyond this is a pointed window with a hollow moulded hood, remade in the 19th century to form a niche for missing sculpture. The chancel east window is 19th-century, of three lights with panel tracery. The 19th-century vestry has a window in 15th-century style with two lights.

On the south side can be seen a blocked 14th-century four-bay arcade bearing extensive fire reddening, with three 19th-century windows in Perpendicular style set into the blocking. The 15th-century clerestory to the south matches that on the north and comprises four two-light windows with trilobe heads and square chamfered surrounds.

The 19th-century gabled porch has a continuously chamfered outer doorway. The 14th-century inner doorway is set in a continuously moulded surround of four orders and was presumably reset.

Interior

The interior features a four-bay 15th-century north arcade with octagonal piers and responds, with double chamfered arches. Above the arcade are 19th-century human heads. The tower arch is 14th-century with triple chamfered moulding that dies into the reveals. The chancel arch is double chamfered and similarly dies into the reveals.

In the east wall of the aisle stands a 14th-century pillar piscina with a cusped and crocketed ogee hood with finial.

All remaining fittings are 19th-century except for the plain 14th-century octagonal font and the 15th-century tower screen, which has probably been repositioned from the chancel. The screen features a central depressed ogee arch with panel tracery, cusped ogee-headed side lights, a brattished top and mid rails.