Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a 12th-century church, altered in the 13th and 15th centuries, with the tower remodelled in the 14th century. The building was extensively restored and largely rebuilt in 1852 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. It consists of a west tower, nave and south porch, north aisle and organ space, north or Somers chapel, and chancel. The walls are constructed of ashlar, rubble, and coursed squared rubble, particularly to the tower, with plain tiled roofs throughout.

The west tower has three stages with diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet. The top is built of different stone and is unbattressed, with a setback pyramidal roof topped by a weathervane on a ball finial. The tower features a 3-light Perpendicular style west window and moulded west doorway, single round-headed lights to the second stage, and 2-light 14th-century style windows to the bell chamber. A square stair tower projects at the north-east corner.

The nave has two 19th-century Geometric style windows and buttresses with offsets. The south porch is a projecting, gabled timber-framed structure with a trefoil-headed arcade on an ashlar base. The restored south doorway has one order of columns with trumpet-scallop capitals and a plain arch.

The chancel contains two fine 19th-century 2-light windows in an early to mid-14th-century style with much ballflower ornament under hoodmoulds with head stops. The wall plate is ornamented with ballflower. The priests' door is set beneath a large trefoil head, ornamented with fleurons and ballflower. The 3-light Geometric style east window is similarly embellished with profuse ballflower ornament.

The north aisle is plain with three narrow slit windows. The Somers chapel has angle buttresses with gabled heads and three lancet windows divided by a transom, with trefoil heads to the lower part and a large trefoil light above, all under a hoodmould with head stops, surmounted by a decorated band.

Internally, the three-bay arcade to the north chapel has octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches, with trumpet-scallops to the east capital. The tower arch is double wave-moulded. The font and pulpit of 1852 are in a heavy Gothic style, carved from freestone with marble shafts. A circular tub font stands in the north aisle. An enriched Gothic style screen is present, and the reredos of 1896 incorporates carved friezes and other parts of a monument from Siena.

The stained glass includes an east window by Kempe and a Somers chapel east window by Wilmhurst and Oliphant, dated 1884.

The monuments are of considerable importance. In the tower are two monuments designed by James Stuart and executed by Thomas Scheemakers: one to Joseph Cocks, died 1778, in brown and white marble with a sarcophagus featuring a profile in a roundel and putti above; and one to Mary Cocks, died 1779, in marble, showing a seated woman by an urn set against drapery with a putto at the right.

In the Somers chapel is a monument to the first Earl Somers, died 1855, by Sir George Gilbert Scott, a freestone chest with religious scenes in trefoiled arcading set within a depressed arched niche. A monument to the 3rd Earl, died 1883, by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, is a grey marble chest tomb with a white marble recumbent effigy. Marble tablets commemorate John Cocks, died 1771, featuring an urn before an obelisk; Edward Cocks, died 1782, by Thomas Scheemakers, a marble plaque with books, a cap and a lamb at the foot; and Charles Cocks, died 1806. The monument to Reverend John Fletcher, died 1797, also by Stuart and Scheemakers, shows a standing female figure by an urn before an obelisk.

Scott's restoration and rebuilding represents a high-quality but small and relatively little-known masterpiece, completed at a cost of £1,506 0 shillings and 3 pence.