Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church with medieval origins, entirely rebuilt in the Decorated style between 1868 and 1870 by J. Lewis of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is constructed primarily of pink sandstone with rough-faced coursed rubble, and has graded slate roofs with raised verges, kneelers and crosses to the gables. The church comprises a nave, chancel, south-west tower with a slender spire, a south aisle and chapel, and a north aisle with a vestry, along with south and west porches.

The south-west tower has three stages with angle buttresses and is crowned by rather coarse corner pinnacles, featuring Decorated-style windows to each stage. A tall, recessed spire with gabled lucarnes tops the tower. The nave has four bays, with twin trefoil-headed windows to the clerestory and a plain corbel table. A gabled porch is located at the west end. The chancel is in three bays, with varied Gothic tracery in each window, including mouchettes in the east window on the south side, and a corbel table. The aisles are lean-to constructions, each with four bays and two-light trefoil-headed windows with quatrefoils above, also featuring corbel tables. A gabled porch is on the western bay of the south aisle, and a lower chapel is attached at the east end of the south aisle; the vestry is at the east end of the north aisle.

Inside, the nave has an arch-braced roof with V-struts to the collars, while the chancel has a panelled roof with principals resting on angels. There are four-bay arcades to both north and south aisles, with octagonal capitals, and a tall, pointed chancel arch. A good iron screen, dating from approximately 1870, divides the chancel. Most of the other fittings and furnishings are of the same or later date, with the exception of some re-assembled fragments of 14th-century stained glass in the tower’s west window and an 18th-century coat-of-arms over the chancel arch. Monuments include a late 19th-century arched recess on the north side of the nave, containing the recumbent alabaster effigies of William Sneyd (died 1613) and his wife, upon a tomb chest with armorial shields (the lower legs of his figure are missing). An elaborate monument to Radulph Sneyd (died 1703), with carved brackets and mourning putti, is on the north wall of the nave. Smaller alabaster wall tablets commemorate Thomas Sneyd (died 1615) and Edward and Sisley Brett (died 1593) in the south aisle chapel and south aisle, the latter surrounded by heraldic shields. A similar, undated slab commemorates Lawrence Cranage on the north aisle wall. The church was originally held by the Knights Templars and served as a chapel-of-ease to Wolstanton in the Middle Ages. The Victorian rebuilding was funded by Ralph Sneyd of Keele Hall. The church is designated Grade II* for the completeness of its Victorian interior, particularly the stained glass by Clayton & Bell, and for its reflection of High Victorian piety.