Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a parish church dating to 1890, designed by J Colson. It is constructed of squared grey limestone with brown limestone dressings, under a plain tile roof. The church is built in the Decorated and Perpendicular style. The plan includes a chancel with an outshot, a north vestry, a nave with transepts, and a south-west tower with a porch. The east end of the chancel features a tall, three-light Perpendicular window with a traceried head and diagonal corner buttresses. The south side has a one-light cinquefoiled window with a quatrefoil in the head, a central buttress, and a two-light trefoiled window with a quatrefoil in the head. The north wall incorporates a similar one-light window, while the vestry has a shouldered-arch doorway to the east and a square-headed three-light trefoiled window to the north. The south transept includes a porch with a shouldered-arch doorway, a cinquefoiled light, a quatrefoiled parapet with a coat of arms above the door, a two-light cinquefoiled window with a traceried head, and diagonal buttresses. The nave and transepts have gabled walls with carved heads on the kneelers. A tiny 12th-century lancet window is located on the west side of the south transept. Each bay of the nave has two-light cinquefoiled windows with quatrefoils in the head, with a buttress between the bays. The west end has clasping buttresses to the north, an octagonal stair turret to the south, and a tall three-light cinquefoiled window with a traceried head and quatrefoil in the gable. The south-west tower has clasping buttresses with gabled offsets. It features a two-order pointed south door and a two-light cinquefoiled west window. The middle stage showcases a trefoil on each face, while the belfry has a two-light trefoiled opening with a quatrefoil in the head. A corner pilaster adorns this stage, and a machiolated parapet tops the tower, surmounted by a short octagonal spire with a vane. Inside the chancel, stained glass is present in the east windows, and there is a marble reredos with a plaster depiction of the Last Supper. The boarded roof includes ribs. The chancel arch has a two-order foliated capital on a short marble shaft with a foliated corbel. Moulded arches extend above the springing to the transepts. The nave roof is a king-post design with arch braces and tracery in the spandrels, featuring two trusses per bay with braces coming down to head corbels. A Perpendicular-style stone pulpit and font are also present. The organ resides in the north transept, concealed behind a carved screen. Contemporary stalls furnish the church. The porch contains an old font with a cylindrical bowl, and reset 18th-century monuments from 1701 (to Mathew Barlow) and 1716 (to Amy and George Thomas). There are also two 17th-century bells.