Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a church of considerable medieval date, substantially restored in the mid-19th century. The chancel, nave and tower are late 13th century; the north aisle, chapel and upper stage of the tower date to the late 14th century. A porch and restoration campaign were undertaken in 1850 by William Butterfield.

The structure comprises a chancel, nave, north aisle and north chapel, west tower and south porch. The chancel, nave and tower are built of coursed limestone and lias rubble; the aisle and chapel of regular coursed lias; the porch of rubble, limestone ashlar and timber. The nave and chancel have tile roofs, while the aisle and chapel are lead-covered. The architectural style is Early English and Decorated.

The chancel is of 3 bays with angle buttresses. Both east and north walls carry moulded string courses. A 3-light Decorated east window with renewed tracery has a stone-panelled base section. Three 2-light south windows display differing cusped and enriched Y-tracery. An arched doorway between the second and third windows has 2 hollow chamfers and a studded door with strap hinges. A single 2-light Early English north window has bar tracery. Hood moulds appear throughout, and the chancel rises to a coped gable with a mid-19th-century foliated cross.

The nave features an arched south door and a doorway of 1850. The south windows were renewed and comprise two 3-light Decorated style windows with Reticulated tracery and straight heads, plus a single trefoiled lancet with hood mould.

The north aisle and north chapel form a single structure. Buttresses include a diagonal east buttress. East and north walls have moulded plinths and a string course with coped parapet. A double-leaf north door has a chamfered arch and hood mould. Above it is a niche with a renewed ogee head and remains of medieval carving depicting the Nativity with a recumbent Virgin. A 3-light Decorated east window displays 5 radiating lobes, hood mould and head stops; it is said to have come from a medieval chapel at Wilmcote. Two 2-light Decorated north windows feature ogee lights and hood moulds, with the easternmost (chapel) window having head stops. A similar west window lacks a hood mould. A hexagonal north-west stair turret, possibly intended as a beacon, was lowered in the late 19th century and has a slit window and round window with 3 mouchettes positioned high in the north-east re-entrant angle.

The tower stands in two stages with a chamfered plinth, irregular quoins and string course. Diagonal west buttresses have 2 offsets. The Early English lower stage displays a west lancet and small lancet above, with north, south and west lancets higher up. The upper stage features paired 2-light openings with ogee lights, quatrefoils and hood moulds. A crenellated parapet with string course and pinnacles crowns the tower.

Internally, the chancel displays a low-pitched elliptical arch-braced roof of 15th or 16th-century date, with moulded purlins, central rib and brattished wall plates. The easternmost bay is panelled to form a wagon roof painted and decorated with stars, which cuts across the top of the east window. Three 13th-century sedilia and a piscina feature hollow-moulded arches, hood moulds and head stops. The chancel arch, of Early English style, is a work of 1850 with clustered shafts and stiff-leaf capitals. Low stone screen walls by Butterfield have coped tops and pierced quatrefoils, with Gothic iron gates. The nave roof has scissor bracing with collars, probably dating to 1850. A west organ gallery was added in 1850. A triple-chamfered tower arch on moulded corbels admits the tower space. The late 13th-century two-bay chapel and 4-bay nave arcades feature simple arches of 2 chamfered orders with octagonal piers and moulded capitals and bases. Nave responds have moulded corbels, the easternmost of 19th-century date. The north aisle and chapel have a very low-pitched roof with moulded tie beams. A north-west door to the stair turret is accompanied by a sexfoil circular opening high above.

Fittings include a reredos with tracery panels (now dismantled at the time of resurvey), and two chancel chairs made from 15th-century stalls. A 15th-century hexagonal oak pulpit features foiled and crocketed ogee panels, moulded rails and buttresses with finials. A 15th-century octagonal stone font in the north aisle is carved with quatrefoils to each face and a stem and buttresses decorated with bearded heads. A 17th-century font stem is a wood column with gadrooned top. A 15th-century bench, cut in two and displayed in the north aisle, has moulded rails and poppy heads. Mid-19th-century pews and Gothic altar rails are later additions. Stained glass includes 14th-century fragments in the north aisle north-east window and good glass of circa 1852 in the nave lancet. The east and chapel east windows contain late 19th-century work by Charles Kempe. A lead panel on the nave west wall is dated 1757 and bears the names of churchwardens; it was removed from the chapel roof in 1969.

The chapel was historically associated with the Guild dedicated to St Mary. The building is listed Grade I for its considerable survival of medieval fabric, abundant medieval windows, unusual stair turret, medieval chancel roof, and as an important example of 19th-century restoration by William Butterfield.