Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a late 13th-century church, with significant additions and alterations from the 14th and early 15th centuries. It was extensively restored in 1854. The church is constructed of sandstone rubble, with tile roofs. It comprises a west tower with a spire, a nave, a lower chancel, a north aisle with a pitched roof, a north chapel, and a north porch.

The lower stage of the tower, dating to the 13th century, has a single trefoiled light window on each side. The upper stage, from the 14th century, features ogee bell openings, each with a single light, and is broached to a stone spire. The south wall of the nave is divided into three bays by buttresses. The outer windows have flat heads and trefoiled lights. The central window, late 13th century, has two lights with cusped Y-tracery. In the south wall of the chancel are two trefoiled one-light windows and a priest’s door with a Tudor arch. The west window of the north aisle is of two trefoiled lights with a pierced spandrel. The north wall of the north aisle contains a window of three trefoiled lights with a flat head and hood. The gabled porch has an outer doorway with a pointed arch, chamfered in two orders. A blocked doorway with a Tudor arch is present in the north wall of the chapel, alongside an east window of three trefoiled lights with a Tudor-arched head. The east chancel window has three cinquefoiled lights under a pointed head with Perpendicular tracery.

Internally, a three-bay arcade features chamfered Tudor arches springing from octagonal piers; the capitals are moulded and carved with grotesque animals, faces, and heads. The nave roof trusses have straight braces to collars and cusped V-struts. The pointed tower arch is plastered, while the chancel arch is moulded with semi-octagonal responds. The south window of the chancel has two 19th-century trefoiled inner arches with alabaster shafts and foliated capitals. A 19th-century cinquefoiled piscina is also present. The chancel has a boarded barrel roof. A re-set 15th-century screen with carved tracery decoration is located within the Tudor arch dividing the north aisle and north chapel, and incorporates organ pipes. The font, of around 1200, is of South Italian origin and was gifted to the church in 1907. It has a knotted shaft, standing on an elephant, and a capital carved with four rams’ heads. The bowl has a band of Cosmati work and is carved with scrolls and figures.