Church Of St John

Church of St John

This is a parish church with a 12th-century tower and early 14th-century nave and chancel. The building is constructed from slatestone and sandstone random rubble with metamorphic stone quoins, granite dressings, and 19th-century limestone dressings. The roofs are slate with crestings, and the tower has a pyramidal roof.

The church consists of a west tower, a nave and chancel in one range, and a south porch. The tower is short and two-staged, with the second stage stepped back. The west doorway is blocked. At the first stage, there are round-headed lancet windows on the north and south sides with hollow-chamfered surrounds. The second stage has flat-headed lancets with slate bell-louvres on all sides except the east. A relieving arch remains from the former west doorway, and there is a buttress to the north.

The nave is three bays long and continues into a single-bay chancel. On the north side, the original plinth and rubble pilasters remain. The nave has two 19th-century windows with 4-centred arches of three lights. At the west end is a 17th-century two-light window in granite with a flat head, hood mould, and hollow-chamfered surround and mullion. The south side has metamorphic stone quoins, a similar 19th-century window at the west end, and a three-light 19th-century window at the east end with cusped lancets and 4-centred arch with hood mould.

The chancel continues the plinth on the north and east sides only, with stepped raised coped verges and a cross finial. The east window is 19th-century, three-light with cusped heads and hood mould, dated on the sill. The north side has metamorphic stone quoins on the pilaster and a 14th-century window of two cusped lancets in granite with hollow-chamfered surround and central mullion carried up to a flat hood mould. The south side has a 14th-century two-light granite window with cusped lancets and quatrefoil over, all hollow-chamfered, with 4-centred arch and hood mould.

The gabled south porch has stepped raised coped verges and a cross finial, with a datestone set low in the wall reading 1605. It has a round-arched doorway with a rendered head of 20th-century date. An 18th-century slate sundial with gnomon is set above the doorway. Inside the porch is a 19th-century common rafter roof. The inner doorway has chamfered jambs on a plinth with imposts supporting a round arch; the tympanum is blocked. The porch contains 19th-century double doors with strap hinges.

The interior tower is ceiled and has a pointed rubble arch with imposts and plinth. The north and south windows have deep splayed reveals. The nave and chancel have a 19th-century roof with five bays to the nave and two to the chancel, featuring common rafters, upper collar and collar purlin, one row of purlins, and principal rafters braced at their bases, with a larger brace at the junction between nave and chancel. All windows have chamfered rere-arches.

The building was largely rebuilt in 1867-68 by William White in Early English style, with the exception of the tower. An 1851 restoration is dated on the chancel east window surround. The porch was probably rebuilt in 1605 on the site of an earlier porch in front of the 12th-century doorway.

Fittings include a sanctuary chair in the chancel dated MA 1635, with a straight carved back and scrolled arms. There is a plain 19th-century octagonal stone font in the tower. Late 19th-century wooden pews and a pulpit, along with a panelled 19th-century wooden reredos, furnish the church. Three 19th-century brass candelabra in the nave are for oil lamps.

Monuments include a marble tablet with an oval inscription panel in the nave to John Sweet (died 1786) and Isabella his wife (died 1790). In the chancel is a round-headed slate tablet with fluted pilasters, keystone, and shaped apron, inscribed with laudatory Latin verses to Elizabeth Beele (died 1747).

The north window in the nave contains fragments of medieval glass reset in roundels and diamonds. Windows in the chancel, south nave, and central north nave window feature late 19th-century and early 20th-century stained glass.