Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a medieval parish church, significantly restored in 1862/64 by E.C. Hakewill and in 1872 by J.D. Wyatt. It comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a west tower, a south porch, a north vestry, and an organ chamber. The church is primarily built of flint and septaria rubble with freestone dressings; the 19th-century work incorporates knapped flint and rubble. The nave has a slate roof, the chancel a plain tile roof, and the aisles are concealed behind parapets.

The chancel displays mid-to-late 14th-century features, including a hoodmoulded south doorway, a reticulated-traceried east window, and two south windows. A mid-14th-century south nave arcade spans 5 bays, characterized by fluted octagonal shafts and moulded capitals. Late 14th-century aisle windows were reset and restored. The tower is a well-preserved late 15th-century structure, featuring twin belfry windows on each face under a single hoodmould. Elaborate flushwork tracery adorns the parapets and the faces of the buttresses, with canopied image niches at the head of each. A frieze around the base displays intricate tracery panels. The west doorway is distinguished by grotesque hoodmould corbels. The nave clerestory, also from the 15th century, has 5 bays of traceried windows, with a pillar between each, originally supporting figures, and a moulded frieze with a variety of fleurons. A tall, shafted tower arch separates the nave from the tower.

The 1872 work by Wyatt included the addition of a north aisle, which incorporated several reset late 13th-century Y-traceried windows and a doorway with a heavy hoodmould and grotesque corbels. The 15th-century porch was restored in 1862 and retains three image niches over the entrance, with the jambs and shafts remaining. A mid-14th-century inner south doorway is also present.

Inside, a four-panelled traceried parclose screen from the 15th century remains in the south aisle; the lower panels have 20th-century painted figures. The octagonal limestone font, also 15th century, has shields bearing letters on the sunk faces of the bowl, flanked by angels, and supported by birds on the stem. Five poppyhead benches with traceried ends and buttresses are found in each aisle. A notable monument commemorates Sir Robert Gardener (d.1619), featuring a reclining figure with his kneeling son and a coat of arms forming a crown. A 15th-century slab in the south aisle floor features a large brass sinking of a figure within a cross. The 19th-century restoration work included a virtual rebuilding of the south aisle by Hakewill in 1862 and a remodelling of the chancel in 1864.