Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist, Claines

This is a large parish church of 12th-century origins, substantially rebuilt in the early 15th century with 16th-century additions. It was restored and enlarged by the architect Aston Webb in 1886 and 1887, with further alterations carried out in the mid-20th century. The building is constructed of dressed sandstone with plain tiled roofs featuring parapets at the gable ends and a cross finial at the east end. It is designed in the Perpendicular style.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay aisled nave with an additional north outer aisle, north and south porches, a two-bay chancel with north and south chapels, and a north vestry.

The west tower has three stages divided by three strings, with a plain chamfered plinth that continues around the building. Diagonal buttresses rise at the west end. The west window is square-headed with three cusped ogee-headed lights, a design repeated throughout much of the church. The north and south walls of the tower contain blocked doorways. The second stage has a single ogee-headed light to each face. The belfry stage features square-headed, two-light louvred openings, with an embattled parapet above adorned with crocketted corner pinnacles.

The nave is flanked by lean-to aisles. The late 19th-century outer north aisle has a parapet with moulded coping, buttresses with offsets and crocketted pinnacles, with embrasures flanking each pinnacle. The north elevation reuses much earlier masonry from the former north wall. Three three-light windows pierce the outer north aisle. The inner aisle contains a gabled dormer with parapet, square-based finial and a two-light window above the third bay from the west end. Both aisles have three-light windows in their west elevations, the outer aisle window featuring a two-centred head.

The south aisle mirrors the north with buttresses having offsets, three three-light windows, a similar gabled dormer, and a three-light window at the west end.

The north porch is a late 19th-century addition projecting from the easternmost bay. It has a gable end parapet, corner pilaster buttresses, and central round-arched panels repeated in the side elevations. A two-light window occupies the west side elevation.

The south porch, positioned in the second bay from the west, also dates to the late 19th century. It features a gable end parapet with kneelers and square-based finial, diagonal corner buttresses with offsets, gablets and cusped lancet panels. A plain chamfered two-centred archway forms the entrance, with a circular traceried opening pierced in the apex above. The side elevations have square-headed openings with cusped lancet tracery.

The chancel retains north and south chapels added during the early 16th century. The north chapel is dedicated to St Catherine, while the south chapel serves as a chantry chapel. Buttresses with offsets support the chancel walls; the original diagonal buttress at the south-east end was set square when the south chapel was added. The east window is three-light with a two-centred head.

The north chapel has a late 19th-century east gable end parapet that retains some original early 16th-century quatrefoil panelling; the pinnacles from the original parapet are reused on the west tower. A three-light east window with four-centred head lights the chapel, and at the north-east end is a three-light window reused from the original north chancel wall. The late 19th-century vestry projects to the west, adjoining the north porch, with a gable end parapet, crocketted finials, and a central gable end buttress bearing a carved coat of arms. A round-arched doorway with single roll moulding and a three-light window occupy the vestry's west face. Reused 16th-century two- and three-light windows flank a central buttress in the east side elevation.

The south chapel features a heavily moulded cornice following the lean-to roof's incline at the east end, a quatrefoil-panelled parapet, and crocketted, gabled and panelled pinnacles above each buttress. A three-light east window and two- and three-light windows in the south elevation, all reset from the original south chancel wall, light the chapel. A blocked doorway stands between the south windows. All the hopper heads bear the date of the 1886 restoration.

The interior displays a four-bay nave with arcades of two-centred arches of single chamfered order on octagonal columns and responds with moulded capitals and bases. A cinquefoil light pierces the apex of the east gable. The outer north aisle has a four-bay arcade on compound piers with moulded capitals, bases and pointed arches. The two-bay chancel arcades differ in detail: the south arcade matches the nave arcades, while the north arcade has two chamfered orders—the outer hollow chamfered and the inner order wave moulded—with columns and responds that continue these orders and have moulded capitals and bases. The two-centred chancel arch has a single chamfered order on semi-octagonal responds with moulded capitals and bases. The tower arch and arch into the chantry chapel match the chancel arch. The arch into St Catherine's chapel follows the north chancel arcade's detailing and contains two early 19th-century squints in the south abutment, with stairs to the former rood loft in the north abutment; an aperture above the north abutment is the only surviving evidence of the actual loft. A large pointed archway connects St Catherine's chapel to the north vestry.

The nave retains a trussed rafter roof. The aisles preserve medieval purlins, swept wind-braces and principal rafters supported on foliated corbels. The roofs of the chancel and chapels are late 19th-century work, with the chancel featuring richly decorated cornice and quatrefoil panelling above the wall-plate. All roofs have foliated bosses. The interior furnishings—reredos, altar rails, parcloses, pulpit, font and pews—are all late 19th-century work. A section of a 12th-century arcade column is retained in a recess in the north wall of the tower. Fifteenth-century tiles are set in the east wall of the north porch.

The church contains a notable collection of memorials. A recumbent effigy of John Porter, died 1577, stands in the south-east of the chancel with a blind arcade on its north side of three round-headed arches on fluted pilasters with blank shields in trefoiled panels beneath. A stone coffin lid, probably 13th-century and carved with a Passion cross, is set in the nave floor at its west end. Many ledger slabs on the nave floor date from the late 17th century. The north aisles contain several good late 17th- and early 18th-century memorials, including one to Mary Porter, died 1668, featuring a segmental pediment, coat of arms and angel head corbel. Two large cartouches commemorate George Porter, died 1709, and Henry Wynne, died 1693. An early 18th-century memorial to the Jackson family bears a segmental pediment and coat of arms. The south-west corner of the chancel holds a memorial to Sir Harry Wakeman, died 1831, a bust on a draped sarcophagus by Hollins of Birmingham, alongside memorials to Sir Offley Penbury, died 1858, and Mary Wakeman, died 1832, and a small early 18th-century cartouche. Both chapels and the south aisle house numerous good-quality memorials chiefly from the early 18th and early-to-mid 19th centuries. The stained glass is all late 19th-century except for the north-east window of St Catherine's chapel, which contains mid-20th-century glass.

This is a large Perpendicular parish church of considerable architectural merit, particularly notable for the detailed exterior of the chantry chapel, the main interior features, and its particularly fine collection of memorials.