Church of St. John the Baptist

Church of St. John the Baptist

Originally a chapel of ease to Caddington parish in Bedfordshire until 1877, this church is now an independent parish church. The building has a complex construction history spanning from 1734 to 1892, with successive enlargements and alterations visible in its fabric.

The oldest parts date from 1734, when John Coppin of Mergerete Cell, Esq. built and endowed the original chapel and tower. This is documented by a bell in the tower and a stone plaque now fixed at the west end of the south aisle reading "THIS CHAPEL / WAS BUILT & INDOWED BY / JOHN COPPIN / OF MERGERET CELL.ESQ/ IN YE YEAR 1734". The south aisle was enlarged in 1811 by Joseph Howell, Esq., commemorated by an external oval stone plaque reading "THIS / CHAPEL ENLARGED / BY JOS HOWELL ESQR. / AD 1811". The matching north aisle dates from 1841, built for Daniel Goodson Adey, probably by architect T.L. Donaldson. A triangular vestry was constructed in the north angle alongside the tower. General restoration was undertaken in 1874 for Reverend Francis William Adey. In 1875, the north door was blocked, a south door was formed, a south porch was added, and the north-west vestry was enlarged. The Gothic-style eastern parts were added after the church became a parish church proper. The external east foundation stone carries the date 1888 with a specification by John R. Brown of Luton, and was laid by Mrs. Mary Brooke Adye on St. John the Baptist's day in 1892. The building was erected by W.G. Durham, builder, to designs by J.R. Browne and Son, architects.

The oldest walling appears on the tower and west wall, constructed in dark red brick chequered with blue headers. The north aisle uses sandier red brick in chequered walling with stone dressings, whilst the south aisle is in dull red brick with random black bricks. The south porch is built in plum brick, and the east parts are in plum brick with Bath stone dressings. Steep red tile roofs with metal roofs at lower pitch behind parapets cover the aisles.

The original structure was a freestanding chapel situated in the south-west part of Cell Park, approached from the north via a drive. It consisted of a long narrow building with a small crenellated slender west bell tower, diagonal buttresses at each angle, a central entrance on the north side with four windows, probably five matching windows on the south side, and a large round-headed east window. When the south aisle was added in 1811, three windows were likely re-used and a south arcade on wooden pillars was inserted, probably along with the west gallery. This arcade was rebuilt in brick in 1841 when the north arcade and north aisle were added, presumably re-using the stone north doorway and four windows from the former north wall and extending the west gallery. Drawings preserved in the church show that these arcades of 1842 originally comprised three bays flanked by shorter bays at each end, blocked by screen walls. The present three-bay arcades date from the 1874-75 restoration and nave roof rebuilding, when the north entrance was blocked and the south entrance was formed. The later eastern parts are in Decorated style and comprise a raised chancel, a south-east chapel, and a north-east vestry. The church now has its own direct road access to the east, with iron railings cutting it off from the park at a distance of one metre from the blocked north door.

Inside, the nave features wide semi-circular arched arcades of three stepped shallow orders with dripmould, raised on thick octagonal piers with coved capitals. The roof is a six-bay open timber collar-truss construction, boarded under the rafters. The south aisle contains two round-headed windows with rectangular leaded glazing and central division, fitted with wrought iron termenta. A south door was formed in the lower part of a third window. Eighteenth-century fielded panelling is fixed to the south wall with carved panels probably from a pulpit. A grey marble wall monument commemorates Joseph Howell, died 1819. The north aisle has four similar round-headed windows, one of which contains a quarry inscribed with ".... Halsey .... 1758", and a central recess behind the blocked north doorway. Parts of 18th-century pews have been re-used in 19th-century re-seating, including one marked "INCUMBENT" which has been renewed. A west gallery of timber with a bowed front is supported on four slender iron columns with 18th-century barley sugar twist balusters set in open panels.

Externally, the Totternhoe stone round-headed windows each feature a moulded architrave and archivolt with keystone and impost blocks, with moulded sills below. The stone has been preserved by limewash. The central external projection has its own moulded cornice and a V-jointed rusticated round arched doorway with projecting keystones. The threshold stands at some height above ground level and must originally have been approached by steps.

The west tower displays small pointed bell-stage openings and diagonal buttresses rising to only half its height, with a brick string course below the crenellated parapet. A boiler chamber situated below ground on the south side features an octagonal flue topping the south-west corner buttress of the nave. The south porch is gabled with a tile roof and gable parapet, with a circular opening in the gable above an arched doorway of two stepped orders, its keystone only on the inner arch. Fielded panel double doors, probably re-used from the original north door, occupy the entrance.

The chancel is entered through a wide pointed arch with corbelled jamb-shafts and profuse carved leaf capitals. A two-bay Decorated arcade opens onto the south-east chapel, with a lesser arch on corbelled shafts dividing off the east end. Triple trefoil arches in the south wall serve for a piscina and stepped sedilia. Similar shafts flank a three-light east window with stained glass installed in 1922 by A.L. Moore and Son. The floor is laid in red tiles with a diaper pattern of black lines, and features a painted barrel vault. Choir stalls incorporate barley sugar twist balusters, possibly from an 18th-century altar rail.