Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a Grade II* listed building located in Puttenham. It features a 12th-century arcade and door, a 13th-century nave and chancel, a 14th-century south transept, and a 15th-century tower. The vestry was rebuilt in 1770. The church underwent restoration in 1861 by H. Woodyer and again in 1868 by Charles Kerry. It is constructed from sandstone rubble with chalk dressing, some of which has been replaced with Bath stone, and has red brick quoins on the tower.

To the north, there is a red and blue brick chapel on a stone plinth, with a rendered chancel to the east. The roofs are plain tiled, with a pyramidal roof over the tower. The nave includes a north aisle and a south porch, with the chancel to the east and a vestry (formerly the Lady Chapel) to the north, as well as an organ loft to the south and the tower at the west end. The square tower has a stair-vice at the southeast angle and diagonal offset buttresses at the west end. It consists of three stages, featuring a tiled plinth and a rendered parapet, with double-arched, louvred openings on each face of the top stage. There is a large 19th-century window on the west side and double ribbed doors below it. Most windows were replaced in the 19th century, with three triangular stone dormers on the north side of the nave and two arched, leaded casement windows in the vestry. The windows on the south side are a mix of Decorated and Rectilinear styles with stone tracery. The south porch has a gabled roof with outer glazed doors and an inner wooden door, while there is an additional door to the north.

Inside, the church features stone floors and a four-bay nave arcade to the north, dating from around 1160, with round piers that have square scalloped capitals and unchamfered arches surrounded by crimped plasterwork. The bases of the piers rise from bay to bay towards the west. The south doorway, dating to around 1170, has a round arch with deep moulding and keeling. The chancel arch, from around 1200, features simple imposts and a pointed arched surround with a chamfered inner order. The chancel has two bays with unmoulded arches and 14th-century cambered tie beams in the roof. The church has 20th-century fittings, which are part Gothic and part classical, designed by Randoll Blacking in 1936. An octagonal stone font is present, featuring trefoil panels.

There are also some early 19th-century white stone wall tablets created by a local mason.