Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a chapel of ease that became a parish church. The nave was built in 1840–1841 to designs by John Carline of Shrewsbury (1792–1862). A chancel was added between 1867 and 1881 for Mr W.M. Sparrow, and a vestry and organ chamber were added in 1906. The church comprises a 5-bay nave with south porch in neo-Norman style, a 2-bay chancel with polygonal apse, and vestry and organ chamber to the north in Lancet Gothic style.

The nave is constructed of tooled red sandstone ashlar, whilst the late 19th-century additions are of coursed dressed red sandstone with ashlar dressings. Plain tile roofs are hipped over the apse. The nave features pilaster strips, a cill string, corbelled eaves bands, and wide parapeted gable ends with copings and kneelers carved with grotesque masks. Buttresses to the west have chamfered tops. A cross stands at the apex to the east, and a rectangular bellcote is corbelled out at the apex to the west with chamfered round-arched openings, gables to each face, and a wrought-iron weathervane.

Windows throughout feature deeply roll-moulded round arches with diamond-leaded glazing. The south doorway in the second bay from the west is roll-moulded with two boarded doors and strap hinges. The south porch has gabled flanking buttresses and a parapeted gable with stone coping and a cross at the apex. It contains a roll-moulded round archway and a small blind chamfered round arch in the apex of the gable above, with pairs of chamfered round-arched side windows. The west end of the nave has a late 19th-century window of three ogee trefoil-headed lights with cusped reticulated tracery, hollow-chamfered reveals, a moulded cill, and a returned hoodmould.

The chancel has a chamfered plinth, moulded cill string, and a cross finial on the hip to the east. Windows are chamfered lancets with hoodmoulds (continuous over the south windows) ending in carved stops and diamond-leaded glazing. The vestry and organ chamber are single-storey with an attic storey. They feature a chamfered plinth, a stepped cill string at eaves level to the north, a parapeted gable to the north with stone coping, and an integral stone end stack with chamfered offsets and a shaft with chamfered corners, moulded bands, and a chamfered cap. A chamfered lancet appears in the gable to the north, and a one-storey lean-to to the east contains a chamfered rectangular window to the left and a boarded door to the right. Square-section cast-iron downpipes with castellated rainwater heads are present throughout.

The interior contains a 4-bay nave roof with moulded wooden wall plate, purlins, and collar and tie-beam trusses with queen struts and curved braces. Nave windows have splayed jambs; the west window has a chamfered rear arch. The 2-bay chancel roof features a moulded wooden wall plate, ashlar pieces, single purlins with cusped windbraces, and a chamfered arched-braced collar truss. The apse has radiating arched-braced principal rafters. A late 19th-century chancel arch has a chamfered outer order, a moulded inner order dying into the reveals, and a hoodmould with carved stops (the stop to the left is defaced). Chancel windows have chamfered rear arches. The east windows have a moulded cill string with carved stops, chamfered cusped rear arches, and continuous hoodmoulds with carved stops. An organ arch to the north has chamfered jambs with broach stops at the base and bar stops at the top.

Fittings include an old oak communion table, 19th-century wooden altar rails and choir stalls, and a plain 19th-century wooden lectern. A 17th-century polygonal wooden pulpit features deeply recessed moulded panels, a door with H-hinges, a panelled back board, and a tester with carved scrolled brackets, a fluted frieze, a moulded cornice, and pendants at the corners. A font, probably dating to the 12th century, is a tapered circular stone vessel with chevron and horseshoe-shaped ornament and a plain wooden cover. Nineteenth-century stained glass is present in the east windows.

A stone tablet monument commemorates Thomas Ireland (died 1729) and features cable-fluted pilaster strips, a moulded cornice, a carved coat of arms above, and a moulded base with a shaped bracket. Other plain late 18th- and early 19th-century memorial tablets are also present. Encaustic floor tiles are laid throughout.

This church was formerly a chapelry of St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury, and a chapel has occupied this site since at least the 12th century.