Church Of St John The Baptist

SO 75 SW SUCKLEY CP -

3/60 Church of St John the Baptist -

GV II

Parish church. 1878/9 by Hopkins on site of former medieval church. Rough- faced, snecked rubble with ashlar dressings and tiled roofs. 2 bay chancel with vestry to south, 3 bay nave with clerestory and aisle to south and north transept, timber south porch, west tower. Decorated style. 2-light windows in chancel, 3-light east window; gabled vestry with shouldered chimney and entrance to south; 3-light windows to nave and quatrefoil-in- circle clerestory windows; large, gabled porch with carved infill panels and quatrefoil pierced bargeboards; north side of nave has transept under catslide roof with 3 north lancets and 2-light east window. Tower, roughly 3 stages, quatrefoil-tracery panelled plinth to lower stage, also 3 strings; west doorway has sandstone nook-shafts with carved foliage capitals; dagger- lobed quatrefoil light to each face of middle stage with imbricated frieze just below belfry stage; large, paired bell-chamber lights with red sandstone nook-shafts, crocketted corner finials to parapet, and pyramidal, tiled roof supporting crocketted finial with cockerel weathervane. Interior Nave has wagon roof; chancel has 4 principal rafters supported on foliated corbels; south aisle has 6 arch-braces with quatrefoil pierced decoration and foliated corbels. Chancel arch has column cluster base, with foliated capitals, and supported on corbels enriched with birds, fruit and flowers. Chancel has C14 arched recess in north wall, with ballflower label decoration and foliated east label stop, containing brass to Thomas Littleton, d 1666, a former rector of the parish, with a coat of arms above the inscription; piscina in south wall with cusped head and label with ballflower decoration; east window has red sandstone nook-shafts with foliated capitals; Norman font with chamfered base and lozenge ornament; C19 pulpit with C17 arcaded panels carved with arabesque work; C19 altar rails; C19 pews; Parish chest in south aisle; many C18 and C19 wall memorials in base of west tower; stained glass in chancel by Kempe, 1900/5. (BoE; VCH, Vol IV).

Listing NGR: SO7209651638