Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a parish church located in Armitage with Handsacre. The west tower dates to 1632, while the rest of the church was rebuilt between 1844 and 1847 by Henry Ward of Stafford, replacing a structure from the 12th and 13th centuries. The church is constructed of ashlar with herring-bone tooling, featuring plain tile roofs with crested ridge tiles and stone coped verges.

The west tower is of three stages, with diagonal buttresses and a crenellated parapet. It has round-headed windows: three lights to the first stage west, single lights to the second stage, and two lights to the belfry.

The main body of the church consists of a four-bay nave with side aisles, a south porch, a three-bay chancel, and a north vestry/organ chamber. The nave and aisles are in a Norman style, featuring shafted buttresses, a Lombard frieze, and round arch windows with colonettes and scalloped capitals. A circular window is set into the west gable of the south aisle. The gabled south porch has a round outer arch decorated with zig-zag ornament, springing from colonettes with scalloped capitals. Inside the porch is a round arch door with two chevron moulded corners springing from colonettes with scalloped capitals, incorporating carvings including a beak head.

The chancel is in a Gothic style, and the north vestry/organ chamber is similarly styled. The south windows of the chancel and the north windows of the vestry/organ chamber are identical, being pointed with two trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil in the head, topped with hood moulds terminating in heads. Both east windows are pointed and of three trefoil-headed lights; the vestry window has Geometric tracery, while the chancel window has Perpendicular tracery. A pointed priest's door is located on the north side of the vestry.

The interior features four-bay nave arcades with cylindrical columns, scalloped capitals, square abaci, and chevron moulded round arches. Hood moulds terminate in grotesque heads. The church has hammer beam roofs over the nave and aisles, and a wagon roof with arch-braced collars at the bay divisions springing from corbels carved as angels over the chancel. A three-bay arcade on the north side of the chancel is characterised by pointed arches and three roll and fillet-moulded orders springing from grouped shafts.

The fittings include a late 11th/12th century stone font with a frieze depicting a seven-bay arcade of round arches springing from cable-moulded columns with scalloped capitals; a pair of figures stands beneath each arch. A 19th-century stone pulpit has ogee-headed panels with crocketed hoods and carved angels around the base. Early 14th-style traceried choir stalls are also present. Stained glass windows include an east window (after 1868) depicting scenes from the Passion, along with windows from 1872, after 1907, and an east window in the south aisle (after 1860). Drawings of the medieval church before its demolition in 1844 are displayed in the south aisle.