Church Of St John The Baptist

SOMERSHAM CHURCH STREET 1. 5140 (west side) Church of St John the Baptist TL 36 77 11/21 30.5.58 I 2. Parish Church, C13 chancel, nave and aisles, C14 tower, clerestory and north porch, C15 south porch. Walls of stone and pebble-rubble with dressings of Barnack stone. Plain tiled nave roof and lead roofs to aisles and porches. Tower of three stages with angle buttresses of four stages, embattled parapet and small lead covered spire with ball finial and weather vane. C14 belfry window of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in two-centred head with moulded label. Four similar clerestory windows. Pair of mask head corbels to parapets of aisles and nave. South aisle with three C15 windows of three cinquefoil lights in four-centred heads with moulded labels, has mid C13 doorway with richly moulded two-centred arch and detached shafts to each jamb with stiff-leaf carving to capital and moulded base. Similar decoration to C13 priest's door in chancel with three lancet windows. South porch with original roof and has two-centred archway of two moulded orders, moulded label and head stops. Interior: Chancel arch and tower arch have two-centred arches, moulded labels with mask stops and keeling to hollow chamfers. Attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases. Nave arcade of four bays with two-centred arches, moulded labels and mask stops, has square piers with chamfered angles and attached shafts to each face, with moulded capitals and bases and later crenellations. Very fine C14 king post roof of four bays with moulded tie beams cutting across curved principals. Crown posts with braces to ridge; moulded purlins and ridge. Carved pendants at apex of intermediate principles, and carved bosses at purlin intersections. Carved stone corbels support wallposts. C13 piscinae in chancel and north and south aisles. Sedilia, C13 of three bays in chancel. Brass in chancel early C16 of priest; monument to Anthony Hammond, 1680, Deputy Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire. Floor slabs, Cl7 and C18. Chair with carved and inlaid back C17. Medieval chest, dug-out with iron bound lid. (RCHM Huntingdonshire p 236).

Listing NGR: TL3601977861