Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church located in North Baddesley. It features a nave and chancel from the 15th century, a west tower and west wall built in 1674, a 19th-century north vestry, and underwent restoration in 1878 by G G Scott. The chancel was rebuilt to match the width of the nave, creating a single cell church that includes a south porch and a west tower. The walls are constructed of flint and stone rubble for the nave, stone rubble for the chancel, and brickwork in English bond for the tower and west end of the nave, with the lower sections featuring large stone quoins and bands of flint. The vestry walls are made of flint with stone dressing, and there are two large stepped buttresses at the west end of the church, made of brick above a stone base. The roof is tiled.

The church has 14th and 15th-century coupled traceried windows, including a 15th-century east window with three cusped lights, one Victorian copy, and a 18th-century casement window lighting the gallery. The porch, built in the 15th century but styled in the 17th century, features a wooden arcade on massive side walls and a moulded stone south door. The tower is crenellated, with narrow openings at the bell stage, and includes a stone plaque above a small west window, which displays the raised figures "1674" along with the initials "S T" (Simon Tredgo) and "T C" (Thomas Compton).

Inside, the chancel has a wooden barrel vault and contains a medieval altar tomb associated with the Hospitallers, a Tuscan monument from 1620 dedicated to John More placed diagonally, a small painting by Annibale Caracci, and a wooden screen from 1602 with lower panels and balustered open rails above. There is also an early 17th-century panelled pulpit with an octagonal tester, a 14th-century octagonal Purbeck font, and an 18th-century west gallery with a 20th-century panelled front. Above the doorway, there is a Royal Coat of Arms from 1806. The church was owned by the Knights Hospitallers from around 1160 until 1536.