Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church of the late 11th or 12th century with significant additions in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. It is built of ragstone with a plain tile roof and comprises a west tower, nave, south aisle, south porch, south chapel, chancel, and north aisle. The north tower survives only to two stages and was converted, probably in the 14th century, to a chapel with a parvis above.

The west tower dates to the 15th century, after 1479. It stands on an ashlared ragstone base with roughly coursed galletted stone above, rising in three stages on a plinth with diagonal buttresses and a south-east stair turret, both crowned with battlemented parapets. The tower features two-light uncusped belfry windows, a Perpendicular west window set in a coved architrave with hood-mould, and a west door with a moulded four-centred arched head. The door has carved spandrels springing from slender attached columns with moulded capitals and bases, coved architraves either side of the arch, and an outer square-topped architrave with further moulding and hood-mould.

The south aisle has 15th-century walls of mixed flint and stone incorporating re-used tufa fragments. It stands on a moulded plinth with moulded string and corner gargoyles below battlements, with three stone buttresses on moulded plinths. A polygonal battlemented south-east rood stair turret rises from this aisle. The aisle contains a 15th-century west window and two 15th-century south windows, all with hood-moulds.

The south porch is built in the same materials and has a continuation of the moulded plinth. It features moulded crown-posts with other members chamfered, a 19th-century sundial, a moulded three-centred arched doorway with decorative cast iron gates, and a moulded three-centred arched inner doorway.

The south chapel dates to the 14th century on a 13th-century site. It is constructed of roughly knapped coursed flint interspersed with stone and small pieces of tufa, standing separately gabled with no plinth. Two 15th-century buttresses support the walls. It retains a 15th-century south window with hood-mould and blocked reticulated windows on the south and east walls.

The chancel has 13th-century or earlier walls of mixed uncut flint and stone rubble on a coursed stone base. The stonework broadens at the base, with diagonal east buttresses possibly added later. It contains a restored 15th-century south window with hood-mould and three tall stepped east lancets. A single north lancet and a 15th-century north window with hood-mould, both restored in 1952, also light this space.

The north tower dates to the late 11th or 12th century. It is built of roughly coursed uncut flint and stone rubble interspersed with tufa, with tufa quoins to the north-east, north-west and south-east. The stonework broadens at the base. It has a north-west diagonal buttress, a reticulated east window to the ground floor, and a single cusped first-floor north light with an ogee head. A 15th-century-style ground-floor north window with hood-mould is probably 19th-century work. A 19th-century two-centred arched east door provides entrance. The north-west stair turret to the north tower is 15th-century work, possibly with 14th-century origins, standing on a moulded plinth and reaching to the top of the first stage of the tower.

The north aisle has 15th-century walls of roughly coursed ragstone interspersed with flint, possibly on an earlier base with pieces of tufa. It stands without a plinth and features a moulded string beneath battlements with corner gargoyle. Two 15th-century north windows and one west window with hood-moulds light the aisle.

Interior: The north tower has a 13th-century quadripartite vault to the ground floor with thick chamfered ribs springing from slender shafts set in corners, with wall ribs forming pointed arches between. The two east shafts are missing. A south doorway with pointed arch springs from a rectangular east pier with plain abacus; the west side of this doorway was blocked in connection with the 14th-century chancel arch.

Two bays form an arcade between the chancel and south chapel, with pointed arches and chamfer-stopped rectangular piers on square stepped bases with undercut capitals surmounted by roll and hollow string. The nave has three bays; the south arcade dates to the early 14th century with octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases and double-chamfered arches, while the north arcade is shorter, abutting the north tower, raised, and similar in design but probably late 14th century.

Various arches span openings: plain-chamfered three-centred arches to the west of the south chapel (14th century), a double-chamfered chancel arch (14th century), a chamfered west arch to the north chapel (14th century), and a tower arch with attached columns (15th century). Small 15th-century doorways with hollow chamfer, pointed arch and broach stops contain 15th-century ribbed and traceried doors serving the north and south rood-loft stairs and west tower stair turret. Upper rood-loft doors exist to the south and very high up in the south wall of the north tower.

The chancel and south chapel have 19th-century roofs. The nave retains a 15th-century crown-post roof, restored. The aisles have moulded side-purlin lean-to roofs.

The church contains fittings of considerable importance. A finely-carved and possibly restored late 12th-century font of Bethersden marble features a chevron-decorated stem and large rope motif to the bowl, described as "one of the finest Norman fonts in the country". Piscinae appear in the south wall of the chancel and the east wall of the ground floor of the north tower. Aumbries are set in the east wall of the chancel. A 13th-century moulded string-course runs along the chancel. Patterned medieval encaustic floor tiles survive in the chancel. A 15th-century traceried screen separates nave and chancel, with further fragments in the south chapel, restored and added to in 1885. A 17th-century communion rail features moulded rail and turned balusters, possibly restored. A Royal Coat of Arms dated 1795 hangs over the south door, and a large Benefactors Board of 1805 is mounted on the south wall.

The monuments are significant. A matrix of brass survives in the floor of the east end of the chancel. In the south chapel, a 14th-century ogee-headed tomb recess with crocketted pinnacles stands in the south wall. Above it is a wall monument to Sir Edwyn Stede Knight, Lieutenant Governor of Barbados, died 1695, erected 1715 by James Hardy. The tablet is surmounted by skulls and a cherub's head, with a base carved with flowers and cherubs' heads. Side panels feature elongated scrolls with foliage springing upward towards Composite capitals. Slightly projecting twisted columns separate the side panels and tablet, also with Composite capitals. A moulded frieze projects over the columns and is surmounted by an open pediment containing an escutcheon. A table tomb partly let into a recess in the south wall commemorates William Stede, died 1574, with moulded plinth and plain cornice to lid and inscription in recess. Two wall monuments stand above: a tablet to Constance Stede, died 1714, also by Hardy but plainer than that to Sir Edwyn Stede, and a brass set in moulded stone to Susanna Partieriche, died 1603, showing a woman and children kneeling on a paved floor in perspective, with three shields above. On the east wall, a large memorial to Charlotte Baldwin, died 1788, features a rectangular tablet with fluted border and striated side panels, moulded cornice with two vases, and a very tall grey obelisk above. Below this is a tablet to William Baldwin, died 1839, with a white marble sarcophagus in low relief on a larger black marble panel.