Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist was built between 1835 and 1837 by architect R G Wetton in the Pre-Ecclesiological Gothic style. A south vestry and some furnishings were added in the late 19th century, and the windows were re-glazed in the early 20th century.

The church is constructed of coursed stone rubble with ashlar dressings, buttresses and turrets. The roof is concealed behind a parapet. The plan comprises a wide six-bay nave with a projecting west full-height porch flanked by two slender octagonal turrets, a small polygonal chancel, and an internal western gallery.

The west end is gable-fronted with a central projecting bay forming the full-height porch, flanked by octagonal turrets of three stages with crenellated parapets. A central tall lancet window with drip-moulding and moulded corbels sits above an arched doorcase. Flanking windows are smaller lancets with smaller arched doorcases underneath the south window and in the north return. The north and south sides feature six tall lancets with drip-moulding and corbels, divided by buttresses. The windows are subdivided vertically into two tiers with early 20th-century frosted glass and marginal glazing. The south side has a small later vestry at the eastern end in matching style. The east end has a central polygonal apse with a triple-lancet window and offset buttresses, with smaller lancet windows on each side.

The interior has a flat, coffered nave ceiling supported by flat-profile iron girders ending in curved brackets on stone corbels. The west gallery is supported on two clustered columns and two half-columns. A large, deep moulded chancel arch is approached up two splayed steps.

Box pews survive throughout most of the nave. The 1896 wooden pulpit features trefoil-headed blank arcading and a flat canopy, unusually positioned against the east wall to the north of the chancel arch. A small late 19th-century octagonal stone font is present. The south wall displays an impressive monument to Reverend William Carus-Wilson, who died in 1861, designed by S Westmacott. It depicts a soldier with a rifle at his feet and a Holy Bible in hand; Carus-Wilson was the founder of Soldiers' Institutes. The north wall holds a First World War Memorial in white marble with a black marble background. The walls have plank dado-panelling. The gallery contains a late 19th-century organ, renovated in 1908.

The contemporary flint churchyard wall features stone gate piers with moulded caps and cast iron gates.

R G Wetton, the architect of this Commissioners' Gothic church, did not design any other buildings that have been statutorily listed.