Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

Parish church of 12th-century origin, extended in the 13th, 14th and early 18th centuries, with restoration work undertaken in 1851 and 1882–3. Built of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings beneath a slate roof.

The church comprises a 12th-century nave, a late 12th-century south aisle, a 13th-century chancel extended in the early 14th century, a 13th-century south transept, and a west tower dating to 1717.

The west tower rises in three stages with diagonal buttresses and a battlemented parapet. A string course marks the upper stage, and each stage is pierced by a triangular-headed lancet with chamfered reveals.

The south aisle extends three bays. The west window contains two trefoiled lights, whilst the east window has three ogee trefoil lights; both have square heads. A 13th-century south door sits within a slight projection, featuring a two-centred arch of two orders with the outer moulded and a moulded label. The outer order of the jambs carries engaged shafts with foliated capitals and chamfered bases. The 14th-century stone porch has a two-centred arch, with single-light windows in each side wall.

The nave's north wall contains five windows progressing from west to east: a two-light trefoiled window with a quatrefoil beneath a two-centred head, a 12th-century semi-circular headed window, a two-light window, a lancet, and another similar two-light window. The south transept's south window dates to the 14th century and displays three trefoiled lights under tracery with a two-centred head and label. Its east window comprises five trefoiled lights beneath a square head. The chancel has matching two-light trefoiled windows in its north and south walls. The east window holds three lights—the outer two pointed, the central triangular-headed—all beneath a two-centred head.

Internally, the tower entrance features a segmental pointed rere-arch with a two-centred arch on the outer face of two orders with respond shafts bearing foliate capitals. The south transept arcade comprises five bays with two-centred, two-chambered arches rising from cylindrical piers. The two eastern piers (late 12th-century) carry moulded bases and scalloped capitals; the others have moulded bases and capitals. The responds each support a corbel shaft with scalloped capitals. The arch connecting the south aisle to the south transept displays two chamfered orders dying into the responds. The chancel arch, rebuilt in 1882–3, is two-centred with two continuous chamfered orders. The chancel-to-south transept arcade contains two bays with two-centred arches of two orders (inner chamfered, outer moulded). The central pier comprises eight grouped shafts, alternately round and filleted, topped with stiff-leaf capitals.

The nave roof is of common-rafter type with arch braces to collars and a brattished wall-plate; four later trusses with wall posts resting on corbels have been inserted. The south aisle roof, probably 14th-century, spans five bays with wall posts and cusped bracing. The transept roof features common rafters with arch braces to collars and a collar purlin. The chancel roof is a 19th-century segmental pointed ribbed wooden vault.

Fittings include an octagonal font dated 1638. The rector's desk in the chancel's north-west corner incorporates 17th-century panelling dated 1635. The reredos comprises 17th-century panelling. Extensive traces of 14th-century wall painting survive in the south transept, including an elaborate canopy above a corbel that once carried a statue, along with two figures of saints—one probably Saint Margaret. A Gothick memorial tablet to St John Cotterell (died 1790) hangs on the west wall of the south transept. Two similar Gothick tablets appear in the south aisle commemorating John Henry Cotterell (died 1834) and Sir John Geeres Cotterell (died 1845). The south aisle windows incorporate re-used coffin lids displaying incised crosses.