Church of St John the Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a parish church built in 1866-7 to a design by Arthur William Blomfield, one of the most prominent church architects of the Gothic Revival. The building stands in Eton Wick, with a parish hall added to the north in 1959 by A R Borrett.

The exterior is constructed of red brick with a brown brick base course, enlivened by bands of black brick and limestone polychrome decoration. Bath stone provides the dressings. The roofs are covered in red clay tiles, except for the bell-turret which features wooden shingling. The building's most striking feature is its large, steeply pitched roof that continues at the same level over both nave and chancel, interrupted by a distinctive bell-turret straddling the ridge diagonally where these sections meet. The turret itself has a shingled base, an open middle stage, and a square shingled spire above.

The architectural style draws freely on late 13th-century medieval precedent. The east window is a three-light design in Geometrical style, with a large cusped circle in its head. The nave contains two-light windows, while the south transept has three cusped trefoils set beneath a superordinate arch—an original treatment rather than a direct copy of historical models. The west window is similarly freely interpreted. The south transept also contains a two-light window with a highly individual circular opening in the head featuring multiple circles for tracery. The main corners of the building are buttressed with offsets.

Internally, the church maintains its polychrome brick facing and limestone banding. The planning is somewhat unconventional: the choir forms a structural continuation of the nave, with the chancel set beyond an arch rather than the entire chancel being demarcated by the arch as is customary. The roof is a six-sided structure with scissor braces. The capitals to the shafts at the sanctuary arch and elsewhere are uncarved square blocks, suggesting limited funding for embellishment.

The interior retains its original fittings substantially intact. The church is seated with open benches having square ends and unusual open backs. At the east end stands a gabled stone reredos decorated with foliage and centred with a painted representation of the Agnus Dei. Above the sanctuary arch is a rare wooden arched board bearing a text in Gothic script reading "Glory to God" and likely dating from the church's construction or shortly after. A low stone wall marks the entrance to the chancel. The pulpit and stalls are fairly conventional pieces but together form part of an unusually complete mid-Victorian scheme.

A World War memorial cross on a stepped base stands immediately south of the nave.

The church exemplifies Blomfield's characteristic approach and broader themes of 1860s Victorian church architecture, particularly in its use of polychromy and free development of medieval sources. A curious feature is the presence of two straight joints either side of the windows in the north wall of the choir. Straight joints typically indicate separate building campaigns, but this seems unlikely here. They more probably represent an unrealised scheme to insert a vestry transept on the north side, corresponding to the existing south transept, without excessive disruption to the fabric.

Arthur William Blomfield (1829-99) was the fourth son of Bishop Charles J Blomfield of London, who held the see from 1828 to 1856. Articled to P C Hardwick, Blomfield began independent practice in London in 1856. His early work is characterised by strong muscular quality and the use of structural polychrome often showing continental influence. He became diocesan architect to Winchester, which brought numerous church commissions throughout the diocese. From 1883 he also served as architect to the Bank of England. Blomfield was knighted in 1889 and received the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal in 1891.