Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parochial chapel, now a parish church, dating back to the 13th century, with significant work around 1360 and an 18th-century belfry. It was restored in 1871-2 by Richard Norman Shaw. The church is constructed from roughly coursed limestone and conglomerate rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. The timber-framed belfry features red brick infill, and the roof is covered with machine tiles, adorned with ornamental cresting and coped verges.

The building comprises a nave and chancel unified as one space, with a west belfry and a south porch. The north wall of the nave retains fabric from the 13th century, featuring lancet windows on either side of a pointed, double-chamfered doorway with a hoodmould. A late 17th-century gabled wooden porch with a stone slate roof, restored around 1871, shelters the south doorway, which is of similar style. South wall windows dating from around 1360 have two cusped lights with quatrefoils above—one to the west and two to the east of the porch. The west window is of three cusped lights with mouchettes above and was restored by Shaw. The timber-framed belfry, dated 1701, has close-set vertical posts with long straight tension braces. It incorporates louvres and an early 19th-century octagonal clock on the south side.

The chancel is single bayed, with north and south windows mirroring those in the nave’s south wall. The east window is of three lights with curvilinear tracery and a cusped quatrefoil at the apex. Remnants of a stone cross remain on the east gable.

Inside, a mid-14th-century trussed rafter roof with carved bosses extends the full length of the church and was restored and boarded by Shaw. A late 17th-century carved wooden pulpit and a late 19th-century octagonal stone font are also present. In the chancel are a pillar piscina (likely from the 15th century), a statue pedestal resting upon the carved stone head of a woman (bearing faint traces of paint), and a stone altar slab fixed to the wall. There are late 14th-century stained glass fragments in the north and east windows, including pieces of architectural canopies and figures. The south window contains stained glass dating to around 1915. A screen, probably from the early 15th century, features eight broad one-light divisions: two in the center with depressed arches beneath, and three on either side. The screen is richly carved, with delicately pierced tracery patterns combining late Decorated and Perpendicular styles. It is surmounted by a band of unpierced quatrefoils, a row of pierced quatrefoils, and brattishing. The top tracery is varied in form and includes lierne vaulting with large bosses, a cornice, and cresting with interweaving foliage and figurative decoration. Behind the screen, an altar slab is set in the floor, alongside a collection of late 14th-century glazed tiles. An oak parish chest (possibly medieval) is located at the west end of the nave. No significant monuments are present.

Originally a dependent chapelry of Much Wenlock, the church became a separate parish in the latter half of the 14th century. The church screen is considered the finest in the county.