Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a significant building demonstrating continuous use and development from the Saxon period through the 19th century, constructed primarily of Barnack stone with Collyweston stone dressings and lead-clad roofs. The core of the church is Saxon, comprising the nave and tower. A north chapel and north aisle were added in the late 12th century, followed by a south aisle and south porch in the early 13th century, and the chancel in the early 14th century.

Architecturally, the nave clerestory exhibits small trefoils visible from the interior of the north and south windows, and a moulded parapet. The north aisle features 2-light Decorated windows and a late 12th-century doorway with a double-chamfered arch, shafts, and waterleaf capitals. The early 14th century widened south aisle has 2-light windows with ogee intersecting tracery and widened cambered arch windows also with intersecting tracery. The south doorway has a heavily moulded round arch, consisting of three orders of shafts with stiff-leaf capitals. An exceptionally fine south porch, gabled with a stone roof, is distinguished by a moulded 2-centred arch, three orders of columns with stiff-leaf capitals, blank arcading internally, and chamfered ribs to the vault. The early 14th-century chancel is notable for its excellent five-light east window with cusped and gabled tracery, finials, and crockets. The late 12th-century north chapel contains Perpendicular windows, and the south chapel possesses panelled and pierced battlements and a quatrefoil panelled frieze at its base.

The early 11th-century west tower is the most important element of the structure. The lower two storeys exhibit long-and-short quoins, lesenes, triangular and round-headed windows, decorative carved slabs, and a blocked south doorway featuring a round arch, block-shaped abaci, and capitals. The third stage is octagonal, with large round-arched ball-openings of two lights, triple-shafted jambs, pierced spandrels, broaches at the corners with large octagonal pinnacles, and surmounted by a squat stone spire.

Inside, the Saxon tower arch has unusual rounded angles between the abaci and capitals. The south arcade utilises quatrefoil piers and shafts with rings, stiff-leaf capitals, and moulded round arches. The north arcade presents thin window piers with crocket and volute capitals, including one carved with a serpent. A double-chamfered round arch with a waterleaf capital defines the north chapel. The nave features a depressed tie beam roof with king-posts and arched braces resting on corbels. A painted chancel roof dates to the 19th century. Other interior features include a 14th-century chancel arch, sedilia, a piscina, and a 13th-century octagonal front with traceried arcaded base. Significant sculptural elements include good late Saxon relief carving depicting Christ in Majesty and a late 15th-century Annunciation under a canopy in the south chapel. Stained glass by Marsham Agles, a former rector, also exists. Monuments include a cross-legged knight in the north chapel; a lady monument dating to circa 1400; an early 16th-century tomb-chest in the south aisle; another tomb-chest belonging to the Walcot family, with quatrefoils in a recess with a 4-centred arch and top cresting; and a monument to Francis Whitestones and his family, signed by Thomas Greenway of Derby in 1612, incorporating painted figures of his kneeling family.