Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a parish church dating from 1854, designed by Philip Hardwick. It was altered in the 1980s. The exterior is constructed of snecked, random Kentish Rag stone with freestone dressings, and is in the Decorated Gothic style. The west tower is of three stages with angled buttresses and a stone broach spire. A deeply moulded door is set within clustered colonnettes at the base. The nave is tall, with a large Decorated window on the west side, and features a lower aisle, creating a pleasing massing arrangement. The side elevations and east end exhibit similar Decorated tracery of good quality. A single window was inserted into the north-west wall in the late 20th century.

The interior of the nave has four bays, with an additional short bay to the west. The western three bays were enclosed at first-floor level in the 1980s to create an upstairs meeting room, which is now lit by the full west window and exposes the common rafter and collar roof structure. A high arcade is carried on round piers; the eastern two bays remain full height, with the other piers visible below the meeting room. There is a high chancel arch leading to a two-bay chancel. A gallery previously housed the organ and is now located in the north chancel aisle, with a Lady Chapel to the south chancel aisle. Later galleries have been added to the north and south aisles. A Decorated carved stone reredos is present. Original pews remain in the nave, and there are oak choir stalls. Metal stairs are located to the north and south of the west end, along with late-20th-century doors leading to a lobby and store room, where a World War I memorial plaque is displayed. A stone winder stair within the bell tower leads to a small room panelled with hand-painted commemorative boards documenting peal recordings from 1875 through the 1920s. A 1868 monument by M. Noble depicts an angel holding a cross.

The church was built with funds donated by Miss Angela Burdett Coutts, who later became Baroness Burdett Coutts. The church’s special interest arises from the massing of the west end, including the prominent tower with broach spire, the Decorated tracery, the Victorian glass, the unique bell-tower room, and its internal fittings. The late-20th-century enclosure of the nave's western bays has altered the internal space.