Church Of St John The Baptist

CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

A 12th-century church originally built by the Earl of Chester, substantially altered and extended in the 19th century. The building is constructed of local grey sandstone with tile roofs, except the vestry which has a slate roof.

The church comprises a nave with chancel (which has a higher ridge line), a west tower, a north aisle, and a north-east vestry. The 3-stage tower is 13th-century in origin but features 15th-century details in its bell stage and embattled parapet, with angle buttresses and string courses. The steeply pointed west doorway has a simple impost band. The south wall contains a pointed window. The middle stage has a segmental-pointed south window, and the 2-light Perpendicular bell openings have louvres. The nave has a diagonal south-west buttress and a 12th-century south-east angle pilaster strip. The 12th-century south doorway displays nook shafts and chevron ornament, with a weathered billet frieze on the label. The nave walls contain 2-light Perpendicular and Decorated windows. A single truncated pilaster strip appears on the north side of the tower in the nave west wall. The 3-bay north aisle was added in 1879 using older masonry and has a blocked 12th-century north doorway with nook shafts, scalloped capitals, and a weathered arch with chevrons. Its windows are 2-light Decorated and Perpendicular. The chancel has pilaster strips and buttresses in its north and south walls. The south wall includes a round-headed window above the infilled remains of a 12th-century doorway (more clearly visible inside), and a later pointed doorway possibly leading to a private pew. The chancel has two 2-light Decorated windows and a 3-light Perpendicular east window on the north and south walls. The lean-to vestry is set back from the north aisle with an eaves stone stack above it.

Internally, the restored tower arch is low and wide with 2 orders of continuous chamfer. Beneath the ridge is a 2-light former belfry window. The north arcade has round piers with double-chamfered arches. The 19th-century chancel arch has nook shafts with scalloped capitals, chevrons in the arch, and a billet frieze to the label, modelled on the doorways. The nave has a 4-bay queen-post roof, raised in 1781 to accommodate a west gallery, with raked struts on corbelled brackets. The aisle has a tie-beam roof with posts and diagonal struts. The chancel's 5-bay roof features arched-brace trusses strengthened with tie beam, crown post, and diagonal struts. The south wall contains a cusped piscina and corbels flanking the south door. Walls are ashlar faced, with older freestone masonry visible in the chancel where a blocked round-headed south doorway survives. Floors are red and black tiles, with raised wood floors beneath pews. Encaustic tiles in the sanctuary are by Maw & Co.

The principal interior fixtures of interest are the funeral monuments in the chancel. The north wall contains the Early Renaissance tomb of Walter Devereux (died 1558) and his wives Mary (died 1537) and Margaret. Three recumbent effigies lie on a tomb chest decorated with balusters and pairs of Jocular mourners in contemporary dress, with a Tudor arch and armorial bearings behind. A mid-16th-century alabaster grave slab to Henry Devereux, formerly at the foot of the Devereux tomb, has an incised effigy. Above it is a brass plaque to Thomas Newport (died 1587). Two elegant classical wall tablets by Sir Edwin Lutyens commemorate General Sir Walter Congreve (died 1927), governor of Malta, and William Congreve VC (died 1916 in the Battle of the Somme). They are of white marble with green and orange marble borders respectively, featuring broken pediments with achievements in a 17th-century revival manner. The 19th-century octagonal font is in Perpendicular style. Plain benches with shaped ends furnish the church. Choir stalls have poppy heads with blind trefoil arcading to the frontals. The polygonal pulpit features cusped blind arches. A Caen stone reredos depicts the Last Supper and is flanked by tile panels attributed to Minton. The chancel east wall displays a painted Royal Arms of 1784 on board. The tower base contains two benefaction boards, one dated 1795. The east window, by Camm of Smethwick (1926), shows the Transfiguration. The nave south window, showing the baptism of Christ, is by Wippell & Co (1953).

The nave roof was raised in 1781. In 1866 the chancel was restored by W.G. Habershon and A.R. Pite, architects of London, who also added the north vestry. In 1879 the north aisle was added, possibly by the same firm, using materials from the dismantled nave north wall. Chancel and nave furnishings date mainly from 1866 and 1879 respectively. The tower was heightened or rebuilt in the 15th century. Nave and chancel windows are 14th and 15th-century work.

In the churchyard stands the base of a medieval churchyard cross.