Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church, originally part of a monastic complex. It dates to circa 1220-1250, with substantial restoration in 1866, and a south chancel chapel added circa 1920-1925. The church is constructed from un-coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a machine tile roof. It comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, a west bellcote, a north porch and vestry, and a south chancel chapel.

The north wall of the nave features two lancet windows; one dating from the 1866 restoration to the west, alongside an original lancet with a transom and a low-side window to the east. A gabled stone porch to the west, likely of 17th-century origin, was restored when the vestry was added to the west in 1866. The south wall has two lancets and a pointed doorway, both of 1866 design, leading east. The west wall was largely rebuilt in 1866, incorporating an external gabled bellcote with buttresses and a narrow pointed arch framing a window of two paired lancets. The chancel is divided into two bays with original lancet windows to the north and one to the south. The embattled south chancel chapel partially conceals a blocked 13th-century doorway. The original east window features three lancets, unusually of the same height, and is internally set beneath a segmental scoinson arch.

Inside, the church retains its original long, narrow plan but was considerably restored in 1866, especially at the west end. The pointed north doorway was renewed at this time, and most fittings and furnishings date from the same period, including a continuous trussed rafter roof to the nave and chancel. The chancel contains a 13th-century trefoil-headed piscina in the south wall and a recessed sedile below a lancet window immediately to the west. Two corbels originally supported statues flanking the east window. A blocked doorway with a shouldered arch likely served as the monks’ entrance. A reading desk dated 1646 bears the initials "ID" and the reversed letter "S," and a pulpit is probably slightly later. Contemporary re-used panelling is fixed to the walls. A Romanesque-style font, dating from the mid-19th century, is complemented by a second font (now in the south chapel), likely from the late 13th or early 14th century, which is octagonal with shorter, broach-ended diagonal sides. Stained glass in the east and west windows dates from circa 1870 and circa 1900 respectively, with pre-Raphaelite style glass in the north-east and north-west chancel windows. A yew tree in the churchyard is reputed to be among the oldest in England. The church was founded as a cell of the Cluniac Abbey at Much Wenlock circa 1150, with the eastern part serving the monastic community and the western part the parish. The house was dissolved in 1534.