Church of St. John the Baptist

Church of St. John the Baptist

This is a church of 13th-century origin, substantially rebuilt and restored in 1865 by H. Woodyer. The building is constructed of sandstone and Bargate stone blocks with ashlar dressings, and is roofed with Horsham slabs. The bell-cote and broach spire at the west end are wood-shingled and topped with an iron finial.

The church comprises an aisled nave with the north aisle set under a catslide roof, a chancel to the east, a vestry to the north, porches to the south and west, and a bell-cote at the west end. The tower features arched two-light openings in each face with scalloped ends to the louvres. Diagonal offset buttresses are positioned at the west end with a sill moulding to the base of the end gable; a 19th-century lancet occupies the gable apex. The north aisle displays a Decorated style west window, while its north wall has offset buttresses supporting one six-light and one five-light window with broach stops to the mullions and quatrefoils over trefoil-head single-light tracery.

A small gable projects from the north end of the vestry, containing a two-light hood-moulded window and a small door set within a buttress at the junction with the aisle. A further door to the east of the vestry opens from a pentice-roofed extension set at right angles to the chancel. The east end has diagonal buttresses and a three-light window with three cinquefoil roundels above. Three 13th-century lancets light the south side of the chancel, alongside a diagonal chalk buttress at the junction with the nave. The south porch, which is gabled and has a 'clunch' surround to its arched door (partly recut), is flanked by three lancets to its west and a lancet plus a plate-tracery window to its east.

The main south entrance is impressive, with buttresses flanking a two-step chamfered arched door surround beneath a cambered tie beam supporting a heavy framed gable with a King-post truss and scalloped bargeboards. Dogstooth moulding ornaments the surround above the south door.

The interior retains a bell cage of old design with chamfered posts and cross bracing, similar to that in Buckland Church. A 19th-century spiral staircase, likewise comparable to Buckland's, features pierced decoration. The north arcade comprises four bays with two round piers and two half-pier responds; the west bay is supported on pier responds. Windows to the north aisle have octagonal piers supporting a rear lintel, with broach stops to the base of the piers. The chancel arch is chamfered. Crimped patterning surrounds the south and tower doors.

The church contains 19th-century fittings including a screen, a pulpit of Whitestone and coloured marble with foliate caps, arcaded sides and shaft supports, piscinae on the north and south walls of the chancel, and a fine octagonal font of black marble on a thick round stem with gilt carving and crimped decoration to its cover, which is ornamented with crucifix decoration on alternate faces.

Monuments of note include that to John Cowper (died 1590) on the south chancel wall: a coloured marble and painted kneeler-type monument with a crowning broken pediment containing a central heraldic roundel on Composite columns, with arched panels over figures set back and half-eggs in the spandrels, a scrolled apron, and inscription panels below. Robert Cowper (1720) is commemorated by a wall tablet in City Baroque style, featuring an open segmental pediment with a crowning cartouche on Composite attached half-columns with flanking scrolls, drapery over the central arched inscription panel, and gadrooning to the base.