Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St. John the Baptist

This is an aisled church with a west tower and south porch, largely in the Decorated style, dating from the 12th century with major reconstruction in the early 13th and 14th centuries. The tower was built in the 15th century. The chancel gable was rebuilt in 1624, the nave north wall in 1630, and the clerestory in the 19th century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1858, and a porch was added with the chancel south wall rebuilt in 1909.

The building is constructed in various sandstones: the chancel and nave north wall are of regular coursed stone, while the aisles and tower are of coursed squared stone. The south porch is built of limestone ashlar. The chancel and porch have plain-tile roofs with ridge cresting and coped gable parapets with cross finials; the chancel also has gablet kneelers and the porch has moulded kneelers. The nave has a slate roof with ridge cresting, and the low-pitched aisle roofs are not visible. Moulded cornices and parapets run throughout the building.

The chancel is of three bays and the nave of four bays. Both the chancel and south aisle have diagonal buttresses of two offsets. The chancel east wall has a moulded plinth, and a 19th-century three-light window with bar tracery is set within a gable containing two inscribed panels reading "AND DNI 1624" and "ROBART KELLET". The north and south sides of the chancel have a splay plinth and buttresses of two offsets. On the south side, a 19th-century chamfered Tudor arch doorway with sunk spandrels and hood mould is now blocked inside, with a plank door remaining. Two-light triple-chamfered windows on the north and south western sides have 19th-century tracery. A drip course runs along the north side to the eastern part.

The south porch is in Early English style with a splay plinth. It features an arch of two orders with attached shafts, hood mould and head stops. The gable contains a datestone. Small trefoiled ogee east and west lancets are present. Inside the porch is a 12th-century doorway with nookshafts; the inner order has fleurs-de-lys-type motifs with capitals featuring interlace to the left and a dragon to the right, whilst the outer order has chevron with a scalloped capital to the left and foliage to the right. A 14th-century segmental-pointed doorway is inserted within, fitted with 19th or 20th-century double-leaf doors.

The south aisle dates from the early 14th century and has a splay plinth to the east with west angle buttresses of two offsets. The south-east and south-west corners have crocketed pinnacles. The east wall and three south-facing walls contain three-light windows with cusped intersecting tracery, largely renewed to the south. The parapet features blind quatrefoils, and a two-light west window has reticulated tracery. Hood moulds with head stops are found throughout. The clerestory contains straight-headed windows of two trefoiled ogee lights with west buttresses.

The north aisle has four north buttresses, one of which is gableted, and features three-light windows. The east, north and western windows have reticulated tracery with hood moulds, and the east and north-east windows have head stops. A small moulded north doorway has a ribbed door, and a three-light north window has cusped intersecting tracery.

The tower is Perpendicular in style and comprises three stages. It has a splay and moulded plinth with diagonal buttresses of four offsets. The first stage contains a three-light west window with a small cinqfoiled niche with moulded base above. The second stage has a chamfered straight-headed opening and clock face, together with a small trefoiled lancet to the south. Each side of this stage has a small carved head set into the wall. The third stage has two-light openings, and the tower is topped with a moulded embattled parapet.

Internally, the chancel contains an ogee piscina and a three-bay 19th-century moulded scissor-brace roof. The chancel arch, dated 1858 on the keystone, has half-octagonal responds. The nave contains 14th-century four-bay arcades of two chamfered orders with octagonal piers and moulded capitals; the north arcade has more elaborate mouldings. A 15th-century tower arch features outer and inner Tudor arches, the inner chamfered with moulded imposts. The nave has a 19th-century low-pitched queen strut roof with tracery. The north aisle has a lean-to roof with some old timbers; one rafter is inscribed "HT TF CW 1726". The south aisle has a door and rood loft stair with remains of a piscina. Two 13th-century sedilia have roll-moulded round arches and simple shafts with inner trefoiled arches. The roof is similar to that of the south aisle, with a rafter inscribed "EB TF 1778 TA".

The fittings include a 14th-century octagonal font with blind tracery, partly renewed in the 19th century. Mid-19th-century fittings comprise an octagonal wood pulpit with elaborate blind tracery and niches, a stone reredos with blind tracery, brass and wood altar rails, and a panelled alms box dated 1723. An iron-bound chest is also present.

Monuments in the church include Thomas Noble (1784) in the chancel south, marked by an architectural wall monument with broken pediment and vase; Richard Warner (1785) in the nave south-west corner, with a large blackened slate vertical slab bearing incised Neoclassical ornament; Thomas Astley (1603) and his wife Katherine in the north aisle east, marked by a chest tomb with alabaster effigies, renovated by John Astley in 1702; Elizabeth Arnold (1788) on the north wall, with a large standing Tuscan Doric monument in grey and white marble featuring half-columns and pilasters with a shaped gable and urn finial; and Thomas and Alice de Wolvey, marked by early 14th-century effigies at the west end.