Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

A church of mid-12th-century origin with major additions of around 1300 and the late 15th century, together with further additions of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The building was restored in 1876. It is constructed of 12th-century coursed sandstone rubble and late 15th-century ashlar, with a plain tile roof over the north aisle; the other roofs are hidden behind the parapet. The plan comprises a west tower, a 4-bay nave with a north aisle incorporating a western vestry, and a 2-bay chancel. All the towers and chancel have diagonal buttresses.

The west tower dates to the late 15th century and consists of four stages. It has a plinth with moulded coping, a moulded third-stage string, and a crenellated parapet with continuous coping around the merlons and embrasures. The west door features a 4-centred arch with two hollow-moulded orders and a heavily crocketed hood mould. Above this is a pointed 3-light window with cinquefoil cusping and panel tracery. The third stage has trefoil-headed loops, and the belfry openings are pointed 2-light windows with cinquefoil cusping and panel tracery. All windows have heavily crocketed hood moulds, including the staircase loops at the south-west corner. On the south side of the tower is a niche with a crocketed nodding ogee arch flanked by finials.

The nave and north aisle feature a 12th-century south door with half-roll and chevron moulded arch, now contained within an 18th-century brick porch (Flemish bond) with a stone coped gable. The entrance to the porch has a semi-circular arch springing from imposts with a raised keystone. To the left is a 19th-century tall 3-light mullioned window, and to the right are three 15th-century clerestory windows, each with 3 trefoil-headed lights and hollow-moulded surrounds. The north aisle dates to around 1300 and features a nail-studded door with a semi-circular head and two 19th-century rectangular windows.

An early 19th-century single-bay vestry extension to the west is executed in Gothick style. It has a large pointed north window of 4 lights with intersecting tracery incorporating an ogee arch and ogee moulded surround, a 3-light west window with intersecting tracery, and a pointed west door with a raised surround.

The chancel retains a blocked 12th-century loop with a semi-circular head on the north side, and the head of a similar loop towards the west end of the south side. The priest's door, a 14th or 15th-century insertion, has a pointed head. Like the nave, the chancel was given a clerestory in the late 15th century, with windows of 3 trefoil-headed lights beneath a 4-centred arch and hollow-moulded surround. The east window dates to the 15th century and has 4 trefoil-headed lights beneath a 4-centred arch. Both nave and chancel have a continuous parapet with moulded string and coping.

The interior contains a north arcade of around 1300 with pointed arches of 2 chamfered orders on octagonal columns with moulded capitals. The tower arch is a tall 15th-century pointed arch with an outer sunk-chamfered order and an inner wide ogee-moulded order, both interrupted by moulded imposts. The chancel arch, of late 15th-century date, has 2 orders with similar imposts to those of the tower arch. A squint between the north aisle and chancel has been restored. Both nave and chancel have plastered ceilings with exposed tie beams.

The church contains a range of fixtures and fittings. An 18th-century baluster font is present, as well as a 19th-century octagonal font with a panelled basin on a squat pedestal, topped with a conical Gothick-style font cover. The benches are 19th-century pine with traceried ends. A late 17th-century pulpit is square with canted corners, fielded panels on the sides, twisted baluster-shafts on the narrow sides, and cherubs' heads on the principal sides. A 15th-century chancel screen has 2:1:2 bays, with solid lower panels featuring trefoiled arches with rendant cusps and 4-centred open arches over panel tracery, with colonette shafts between the bays. The middle rail is decorated with paterae. Nineteenth-century stalls have elaborate poppyheads, and a 19th-century altar rail features trefoil-headed arcading on shafts.

The church contains several monuments. In the chancel are floor slabs with brass effigies of Sir Richard Bingham (died 1476) and his wife Margaret; a brass plate and heraldic shield within an arched recess for Dorothy Fitzherbert (died 1507); a kneeling effigy in armour of Lord Edward Ridgway, second son of Thomas Earl of Londonderry (died 1638), within a round-headed recess flanked by Corinthian columns on brackets and surmounted by a central achievement of arms; and a very tall and elaborate wall monument to Francis Willoughby (died 1665) and his wife Cassandra (died 1675), featuring an outer semi-circular arched recess containing an aedicule with segmental pediment, pilasters decorated with trailing leaves, cartouches and skulls, and a centrepiece of three putti with a garlanded urn above. In the north aisle are two busts within a recess with curtains and segmental pediment for Samuel and Benjamin White (died 1688 and 1685), and an oval tablet with an urn for Anne Budd (died 1718). The south window contains stained glass by Kempe.