Parish Church of St John

Parish Church of St John

This is the parish church of Duxford, now a redundant building in the care of the Redundant Church Fund. The church is a substantial structure of mixed dates spanning from the late 12th century to the 16th century, with later repairs and restoration.

The earliest phase comprises the late 12th-century tower, nave and chancel. During the 13th century, the tower was heightened and the chancel lengthened. A two-bay chapel was added to the north side of the chancel around 1330, and a late 14th-century window was inserted into the ground stage of the tower and the west end of the nave. The late 15th century saw the addition of a north aisle with arcade, arches connecting to the tower and north chapel, a 15th-century window to the nave and chancel, a porch, and modifications to windows. A 16th-century east window was also inserted. The 18th century brought repairs in brick, and the tower and wall paintings underwent restoration in 1985.

The walls are constructed of flint and pebble, clunch rubble, with limestone and clunch dressings and brick repairs. The roofs are copper-covered flat roofs over the main structure, with a lead-covered spire and plain tiled nave roof.

On the north elevation, the nave retains the lower pitch of the original 12th-century roof, with the original truss embedded in the west gable wall. The south aisle features repaired two-stage buttresses and three windows with three-cinquefoiled lights in recessed moulded four-centred arches. The north chapel displays a diagonal buttress to the east, grotesque gargoyles, and a cornice decorated with vine and ball flower ornament. Two windows with flamboyant tracery, ogee heads and crocketed finials light the chapel. The tower has three stages with a loop window at the second stage and an early 14th-century two-light window with quatrefoil in a two-centred arch. A 15th-century embattled parapet and small leaded spirelet crown the tower. The south porch is timber-framed and plastered with carved spandrels and a kingpost roof. The south doorway features clunch with a round arch enriched by chevron ornament and a tympanum with relief carving of a cross with stepped arms.

The interior contains significant medieval features. The 12th-century tower arches are round-headed; the western arch has three attached columns with lobed cushion capitals and plain bases on a chamfered plinth, whilst the eastern arch has single shafted jambs with cushion capitals and a pair of carved dogs to the left-hand base on a chamfered plinth. Fragments of wall paintings are visible above the arches on the walls facing east and west. A two-bay 14th-century arcade connects the chancel to the chapel, featuring continuous moulded orders with semi-octagonal shafts. A 15th-century two-bay arcade to the nave, tower, and north chapel displays two-centred arches and semi-octagonal responds. The chapel contains two ogee-headed niches and a cinquefoil-headed piscina, whilst a round-arched niche occupies the east wall of the nave. The 13th-century font is octagonal with a clunch bowl on a clunch pedestal. A late 14th-century stair leads to the chancel screen. The north aisle contains a sealed doorway and the remains of a west window. The interior also features 18th-century floor tiles and a late 17th-century barley sugar balustered communion rail.

The roof structures are noteworthy: the nave roof is a 14th-century scissor-braced collar rafter roof, the chancel roof is 15th-century with a moulded cambered tie beam and principal with carved bosses at the intersections, and the aisle roof comprises six bays with double ogee moulded principal rafters. The chapel roof is of roughly-set timber, possibly sealed originally.

Floor slabs commemorate Sarah, wife of John Rayner (died 1732), and Richard Hitch (died 1816).

The unification of St John's Parish Church with St Peter's was discussed in 1650 and finally completed in 1874, after which the church became derelict. The north chapel served as a schoolroom from the mid-17th century to around 1847.