Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a church largely dating to around 1200 and the 13th century, with alterations from the 14th century and a 15th-century tower. Constructed from limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, it features plain-tile roofs. The church consists of an aisled nave, a chancel, and a west tower.

The chancel, dating to around 1300, has deep buttresses between pairs of trefoil-headed lancet windows. A priest’s door is located on the south side, while the east window contains extraordinary cusped lattice tracery. The nave’s clerestory windows have cinquefoil-headed lights. The south aisle likely widened in the late 14th century, incorporating a 19th-century Decorated-style east window. Other south windows are 15th-century and later, with a square-headed design, and the south door is 14th century. The north aisle is wider, with one 14th-century window with Reticulated tracery. Other north and east windows are 15th century, with tall cinquefoil lights under square heads. The west window has Perpendicular tracery.

The crenellated 4-stage west tower, dating to the 15th century, has diagonal buttresses and a semi-octagonal stair tower to the south, topped with a short spire. The west doorway features quatrefoils and mouchettes in the spandrels, and has a label. A 2-light west window with Perpendicular tracery and 2-light arched belfry openings with quatrefoil tracery are also present.

Internally, the chancel windows have elaborately-moulded rear arches with head stops. A small contemporary piscina is found on the south side, and a tomb recess with an ogee head and double cusps exists to the north. The three-bay nave has a masonry-piered arcade, with the eastern arch being the earliest, dating to around 1200. The south arcade features a 13th-century eastern arch and early 14th-century additions. The nave and chancel have 7-canted coupled-rafter roofs, thought to be medieval. The chancel arch, originally in a plain Transitional style, was rebuilt in the 18th century.

Notable fittings include a 15th-century oak parclose screen (part now located in the tower arch), two 15th-century oak pew fronts with carved flowers, eight medieval benchends in the chancel with double-headed finials, an elaborately carved 17th-century pulpit incorporating the arms of New College, Oxford, a 17th-century communion table, and 17th-century panelling in the chancel. A medieval stone mensa has hollow-chamfered lower edges. The church also contains medieval encaustic tiles from the excavated church of Woodperry. Stained glass includes late 13th-century panels, roundels, and original grisaille, all in the chancel. Memorials include carved stone cartouches to Frances Squibb (died 1695) and Judith Price (died 1709), several 18th-century wall monuments—one with Corinthian columns supporting a swan-necked pediment—and a small brass inscription to William Pudsey (buried 1658). Numerous 16th, 17th, and 18th-century ledgers are also present, and Painted Hanoverian arms are visible above the chancel arch, dated 1801.