Church Of St John Baptist

The Church of St John Baptist is a parish church largely dating to the 14th century, with significant additions and alterations across subsequent centuries. A south chapel was built in 1308 for Robert Swann, and restored in 1948. The north aisle was rebuilt in 1853 by Henry Roberts, followed by a restoration in 1872-73 by RM Phipson, which included rebuilding the south aisle, removing the south porch, and partially reconstructing the chancel. A north transeptal vestry was added in 1907-8 by Brown & Burgess of Ipswich. The church is constructed of flint and conglomerate with ashlar quoins, with lead roofs on the aisles and slate elsewhere.

The west tower is three stages and features diagonal buttresses. It has an arched west door below a two-light Y-traceried window with 15th-century stained glass in a vesica head, above which is a trefoil niche. Cusped two-light belfry openings are set within a flushwork crenellated parapet with square corner pinnacles. The south aisle has three-light Perpendicular windows with depressed arches, one at the west end and three on the south flank. A two-light cusped Y-tracery window is located to the east of these, within Swann’s chapel. The north aisle features four two-light Perpendicular windows. Six two-light restored Perpendicular clerestory windows are located to the north and south, with the two western windows on the south side having flushwork panelling and inscriptions. A gabled north vestry has one two-light window on its north side. The chancel has a four-light Dec-style east window from the 19th century, and the south chapel has a 3-light Perpendicular-style east window from the 19th century.

Internally, the church contains a four-bay arcade with octagonal piers, polygonal capitals, and triple-chamfered arches. The chancel arch has polygonal responds under a double-hollow-chamfered arch. The eastern clerestory windows have moulded jambs; those to the north are on crenellated sills, and those to the south bear a black-letter inscription reading `Sanct Johannes, ora pro Nobis’. The nave has a restored late 15th-century hammerbeam roof, supported by moulded wall posts resting on corbels of singing angels. The roof includes crenellated hammerbeams and collars, with arched braces above. Arch-braced aisle roofs are found throughout, with the north aisle roof being entirely 19th-century and the south aisle roof being early 16th-century with pierced spandrels. A two-bay 19th-century arcade separates the south chapel from the chancel.

The church holds a 15th-century octagonal font with carved wild men and lions, and a cinquefoiled early 15th-century piscina in the south chapel. Various 19th-century tablets and monuments are present, including a tablet to Charles Long, d.1812, by Nollekins, depicting a weeping winged cherub with an extinguished torch before an obelisk, and a monument to Charles Long, Baron Farnborough, d.1838, by Sir Richard Westmacott, featuring a profile bust.