Church of St John the Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

Parish church dating from around 1200, with additions and alterations from the early 14th century, 16th century, and late 18th century. The building was restored in 1880. The main walls are coursed dressed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, complemented by brick additions. Roofs are plain tiled with moulded bargeboards at gable ends. A timber bell-tower with shingled bell-turret rises above the west end.

The church comprises a three-bay nave with walls continued at the west end to enclose the tower structure, a south aisle with south porch, and a chancel of roughly two bays. A south vestry was added at the east end of the south aisle, and the Blount Chapel adjoins the north elevation of the chancel. The architectural style combines Norman and Decorated elements.

The nave features original clasping gabled pilaster buttresses at the west end, and a 19th-century buttress with offsets to the north elevation. A 13th-century lancet window is present at the west end, with two further 13th-century lancets and two restored 14th-century two-light windows with hoodmoulds at the eastern end of the north elevation. A blocked doorway with pointed head and segmental rear arch is now screened by a lean-to brick addition; above this sits a gabled dormer with a stone chimney at its apex. The south elevation contains a 19th-century doorway with hoodmould at its western end. The bell-turret has a square base with paired louvred rectangular lights in its north, south, and west elevations, a broach spire, and weathervane.

The south aisle dates from around 1200 and was widened in the 14th century. It has a separate gabled roof and restored buttresses with offsets at the ends and bay divisions, along with two restored two-light windows with hoodmoulds. The south porch to the west is gabled, timber-framed with two rows of close-set studding and brick infill, and brick plinth. The south doorway has a pointed head with sunk quarter rounds and segmental rear arch.

The chancel has two buttresses with offsets to the south elevation, a 19th-century east window of three lights, and two 13th-century lancets at the eastern end of the south elevation. A 19th-century vestry addition extends the south aisle eastwards, featuring a two-light window in its east gable end, a long lancet, and doorway in the south elevation. The east end windows of the chancel and vestry, and the south vestry door, all have hoodmoulds.

The Blount Chapel dates from the 16th century. Originally constructed in red brick with blue brick diaper patterning, it was refaced in the 18th century, though its roof was demolished in the mid-20th century. The chapel comprises two bays with diagonal buttresses at the north corners and a central north buttress. It features a large pointed window of 18th-century date in the north and east elevations, and a blocked window in the north elevation.

Interior

The interior contains a three-bay south arcade with two-centred arches of two orders. The columns are circular with bell capitals and grooved and chamfered abaci; semicircular responds are present. The chancel arch is similar in construction, with its inner order having a double roll separated by a square fillet, an outer roll moulding on the west side, and a shafted inner order with rudimentary foliated capitals. Grooved and chamfered abaci continue to the side walls as a band.

The tower is separated from the nave by a late 16th-century timber-framed partition with rendered infill. The lower section contains a central doorway with a three-light diamond wood-mullioned opening to the left and similar seven-light openings either side; panels beneath the openings are oak-boarded. A 17th-century minstrels gallery sits above door lintel level, with a small door to its north side. The tower framework, probably dating from around 1200, incorporates massive scissor-braced corner posts that extend nearly to the apex of the nave roof. All roofs were restored in the 19th century; the nave features a crown-post roof.

The chancel has a large arch into the chapel and a small archway into the vestry, both four-centred. An elaborately carved reredos of probable 17th-century date is positioned in the chancel. The font dates from around 1200 and features a circular bowl and stem. A 19th-century three-sided pulpit is also present. The south aisle contains a 14th-century piscina with cusped ogee-arched head and a 14th-century tomb recess with a crocketted and finialed ogee-arched head, slender pinnacled buttresses at each side, and containing a skeleton.

Memorials

The chancel houses a late 13th-century recumbent effigy of a knight, a large chest tomb with strapwork panels (on which the skeleton is reported to have been originally situated), and an early 16th-century brass to John Blount and his wife with figures about three feet long. Two ledger slabs with illegible inscriptions are also present. The nave contains two simple mid-18th-century wall memorials. Above the tomb recess in the south aisle is a late 18th-century sarcophagus relief with draped urn to the Watkins Meysey family, an early 19th-century urn relief memorial with tree and medallion detail to the Watkins family, and two mid-19th-century memorials at the west end of the aisle.

Glass

The east window contains a fine early 14th-century panel of the Crucifixion. Glass elsewhere dates from the early 20th century.

This medieval church retains several features of particular interest, including its bell-tower framework, minstrels gallery and partition, tomb recess, several fine memorials, and its 14th-century glass.