Church Of Saint John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church dating from the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with substantial restoration work carried out between 1823 and 1830. The church is constructed of rubble walls, incorporating cobbles and ironstone, with ashlar dressings. It comprises a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, and a west tower. Embattled parapets run along the roofline.

The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century and shortened in the 19th century. It features a pointed-arched three-light east window, dating from the 19th century. North and south elevations each have a two-light window with a four-centred head from the 15th century. A blocked pointed-arched doorway is visible on the south elevation. The pointed chancel arch was reworked in the 19th century.

The nave has four-bay pointed-arched arcades on both sides; the north arcade is from the late 13th century with round columns, while the south arcade dates to the 14th century and features octagonal columns. A 15th-century clerestory has three two-light, square-headed windows on each side. The north aisle, largely from the 13th century and reworked in the 15th, has a two-light, four-centred arched east window. The north elevation includes three three-light, square-headed windows with restored reticulated tracery. A pointed-arched doorway, originally from the demolished 15th-century south porch, has been reset and features carved spandrels under a square head. The south aisle, dating from the 14th century and reworked in the 19th, has a blocked two-light window with a four-centred head on its east elevation and three three-light, square-headed windows with 19th-century reticulated tracery on its south elevation. A blocked 14th-century pointed-arched doorway is partly situated below the external ground level.

The west tower, constructed in the 15th century, comprises four stages, with an octagonal stair turret set into the northeast angle. The bell stage features pairs of tall, ogee-headed windows on each side. A small single light is present on two sides of the third stage, while the second stage has a three-light pointed-arched window on the west elevation. A four-centred arched doorway is at ground level, and the parapet is topped with 19th-century pinnacles at the angles.

The interior features roofs that were replaced in the early 19th century. The nave roof is dated 1820 and incorporates imported 15th-century angel figures fixed to the tie beams. The church also contains a 15th-century octagonal font with carving that appears to be from the 19th century. The east window of the north aisle contains 14th-century glass brought from Yorkshire, depicting St Edward, St Oswald, St Dunstain and St Sebald. The south aisle has a polychrome marble wall monument to Sir Patrick Hume, dated 1627, showing kneeling figures of the husband and wife facing each other across a prayer desk. The nave houses brasses depicting a knight (circa 1430), a lady (circa 1490), Edward Cockayne and his wife Elizabeth (1525), and William Cokyn and two wives (1527). The church contains an important collection of ornate Baroque woodwork, mainly Flemish, introduced by Henry Cust, Lord of the Manor, in the 1820s. This includes a communion rail and tower gallery rail from Malines, a tower arch screen from Louvain, a north aisle screen from St Baron at Ghent, and stalls and stall backs dated 1689 from Aulne Abbey near Charleroi.