Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a parish church of mixed dates, with the earliest surviving elements from the 14th century and the most prominent features dating from the late 15th and 16th centuries.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, and a west tower. The 14th-century work survives in parts of the south wall of the chancel and south aisle. The nave, chancel, and both aisles were substantially rebuilt in the late 15th or early 16th century. The west tower, the most visually striking element, dates from the mid to late 16th century and is constructed of Barnack stone and rubblestone.

The west tower rises in three stages with a moulded plinth and embattled parapet. It has three-stage diagonal buttressing, including one at the south-west corner with a small corbel to the first stage. The bell chamber walls each contain two four-centred lights in square heads with moulded labels. The second stage of the south wall has a small loop window in a pointed head. The west window, which has been restored, contains three four-centred lights in a square head with moulded label. The west doorway is set in a three-centred arch within a square head. A newel stair in the north-east angle contains two loop windows.

The nave is built of pebble-rubble with Barnack stone dressings, and features a moulded parapet and gable-end parapet. Large grotesque gargoyles project from the walls. The clerestory on each side contains two pairs of two-light cinquefoil windows with vertical tracery in four-centred heads, with moulded string course carried over the windows as labels.

The south aisle is principally of pebble-rubble with some stone, and coursed Barnack stone in the south-west part of the south wall. It has a moulded stone parapet with two grotesque gargoyles and two-stage diagonal buttressing. The south doorway has two chamfered orders in a two-centred head with moulded label, partly restored. Two octagonal projections with pyramidal tops flank the doorway. The 14th-century door and ironwork have been restored. A modern gabled porch now screens this entrance. The east wall contains a window of three cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery in a four-centred head with moulded label terminating in grotesque beast stops. One similar window appears in the south wall, and a two-light version is in the west wall. An 18th-century sundial is mounted on the south wall.

The north aisle is of pebble-rubble and some freestone with Barnack dressings. It has an embattled stone parapet with the merlons removed, and three beast and grotesque gargoyles. Two-stage diagonal buttressing is present. The north doorway has hollow moulded jambs in a two-centred arch with roll-moulded label. The 14th-century door, made of feathered battens, retains its original ironwork and has been repaired. Windows of three cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery in four-centred heads with moulded labels appear in the west, north, and east walls.

The chancel is built primarily of pebble-rubble and some freestone with Barnack stone dressings. 12th-century fragments of an earlier building survive in the north wall. The stone parapet has gargoyles at the north-east and south-east corners, and two-stage diagonal buttressing is present. The east window contains four cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery and moulded label terminating in mast and grotesque stops. The north wall contains a similar three-light window. The south wall has one similar three-light window and one 14th-century window with two trefoil ogee lights in a square head, the window continuing below a transom. A small 14th-century doorway in a pointed arch is also present, along with a 19th-century door. A staircase turret for the rood loft has an octagonal pyramidal roof.

Interior

The west tower arch comprises two hollow-moulded orders in a two-centred arch, with responds carrying attached shafts terminating in moulded capitals. The nave consists of two bays with two-centred arches of two moulded orders, the outer continuous and the inner on attached shafts with moulded capitals carved with paterae. Moulded labels have grotesque beast stops, and moulded bases are present. The chancel arch is similar in design to the nave arches.

The nave roof is modern, but it incorporates four late 15th or early 16th-century king-post roof trusses mounted on carved stone corbels. The tie beams are moulded, and carved figures decorate the wall posts of the main tie beams and the ends of the intermediate tie beams. The chancel interior dates from the 19th century, except for late 15th or early 16th-century piscinae and sediliae which survive. A 15th-century tower arch screen has an upper part originally from the rood screen, with the lower part being modern. Late 15th or early 16th-century porches screening the south aisle have undergone modern restoration.

A 13th-century stone font is present, comprising an octagonal tapering bowl on a central stem with two round and two octagonal subsidiary shafts with moulded capitals and bases. Late 15th-century stained glass in the west window of the south aisle, originally from the east window of the chancel, depicts "The Annunciation" and "The Resurrection". Fifteenth-century poppy-head pew ends have been incorporated into a modern reading desk. A late 17th-century marble wall monument above the south doorway features Corinthian columns supporting an entablature decorated with hour glasses, a vase, and cherubs' heads.