Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This church is primarily of 13th-century date, with significant alterations and additions spanning the 14th, 15th and 18th centuries. It underwent restoration in the 16th or 17th century, and again in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with quoins and an ashlar parapet to the nave, though the chancel roof is covered in asbestos tile. The plan comprises a chancel, nave with north aisle, and west tower.

The chancel dates to the late 13th century and consists of two bays. It has a crude plinth to the south and a coped gable to the east. The east window is a particularly fine 13th-century composition of three lancets, with a re-used early 13th-century carved head at the apex and hood mould with carved head labels. To the south is a restored many-moulded priest's doorway with hood mould and carved head labels, and a 19th-century plank door. Square-headed two-light windows flank this doorway, both restored, with hood mould and carved foliage labels. To the north is a large single trefoiled light, its external masonry restored in the 16th or 17th century, and to the right an early 20th-century stone lean-to organ recess containing a single trefoiled light.

The nave is of early 13th-century date, with the north aisle added in the late 13th century. The nave is three bays wide, with some quoins, an 18th-century moulded eaves cornice, and a coped parapet with obelisk pinnacles. A coped gable rises at the east. To the south is a 14th-century gabled porch with a rough plinth and a simple square-headed chamfered light to the east, together with a chamfered doorway. A sundial is scratched just below to the west. A 13th-century south doorway features part-restored edge-roll moulding forming a semi-circular head. A reset stone to the east bears a scratched 'mass dial'. To the left of the porch is a 13th-century window of three stepped lancets with chamfered surround and plain hood mould. To the right is a large window of circa 1500, comprising four ogee-headed cusped lights with mouchette tracery and hollow-chamfered mullions within a hollow-chamfered square-headed surround with hood mould and labels. This window breaks into the 15th-century clerestory. The clerestory itself contains three 15th-century square-headed windows of cusped lights to the left, centre-left and centre-right. To the right, above the window of circa 1500, is a shortened and raised square-headed window, probably altered in the late 19th century, with two cusped lights.

The north aisle contains, to the east, a late 13th-century restored window of three stepped lancets with hood mould. To the left, centre-left and centre-right of the north wall are 2-light windows of Y-tracery, perhaps of 18th-century date; the window to the centre-right is positioned where a blocked north doorway formerly stood. To the right and west are 13th-century single chamfered lancets.

The west tower is of two stages. The first stage is of 13th-century date with a chamfered plinth and 15th-century diagonal offset buttresses. A 15th-century moulded string course marks the beginning of the second stage, with a further string course below the bell-chamber windows. The 15th-century moulded eaves cornice features worn gargoyles, below which is an 18th-century restored embattled parapet with obelisk finials. A 17th-century west doorway has a chamfered square head and plank door, with a plain rectangular light above. Four loops rise from the first stage to the bell-chamber. To the south of the first stage is a further rectangular light. The bell-chamber openings each contain two ogee-headed lights with quatrefoil, hood mould and carved head labels.

Interior

The east window of the chancel retains original 13th-century splays and rere-arch. To the south is a 13th-century cusped and chamfered piscina. An early 16th-century chancel arch of two chamfered orders separates the chancel from the nave. A 13th-century window in the south wall of the nave has a chamfered rere-arch. To the west is a 13th-century doorway.

The north aisle arcade is of late 13th-century date, comprising two bays. It features a single octagonal pier with corresponding responds supporting double-chamfered arches. The chancel roof was restored in the early 20th century, re-using some chamfered and cambered tie beams and supported on original moulded stone corbels. The restored 15th-century nave roof features a moulded tie beam, braces and posts, supported on 15th-century corbels carved with beast and human heads. The restored 15th-century north aisle roof has moulded tie beams.

The stained glass includes 16th and 17th-century pieces in the north chancel windows. The east window of the north aisle contains a 14th-century representation of St John the Evangelist, with further 15th and later pieces, and additional later glass in the north windows. 16th-century fragments appear in the south window of circa 1500.

An early 14th-century tomb stands between the north arcade, its east respond and the east nave wall. The tomb is flanked by an arcade of ogee-headed cusped niches with crocketed finials and poppy heads. A piscina is inserted on the north face. The tomb supports an effigy of a man in secular clothing, hooded, showing curled hair. His head is supported by decapitated angels and his feet rest on a recumbent dog. Above is a depressed ogee arch, cusped and richly carved to the south with foliage and flanked to the left by a crocketed pinnacle supported by a female crowned head. The arch is plain to the north.

In the south chancel wall is a 17th-century wall tablet with worn inscription and deeply carved surround, together with three further wall tablets of 19th and 20th-century date.