Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a parish church with origins in the 14th century, and incorporating elements from the 15th century. A tower was constructed in 1861, followed by a north aisle and organ chamber in 1870. The 1861 work was undertaken by Thomas Richards of Wincanton, and the 1870 additions by G R Crickmay. The church is built of coursed squared rubble with ashlar dressings, and has gabled tiled roofs with stone copings, with stone slate verges to the nave. The building consists of a nave, chancel, north aisle, north organ chamber, west tower, and south porch.

The west tower is a two-stage structure with embattled parapets, crocketed finials, and diagonal weathered buttresses. It features a chamfered, two-centred doorway, a trefoiled window with a label above, a diamond-shaped window with a quatrefoil on the north wall, and segmental-pointed belfry lights with louvres. A sundial dated 1599 is also present. The nave has 19th-century south windows of two and three lights with two-centred heads and flowing tracery, set beneath labels with head stops. The north and south chancel walls contain 14th-century two-light windows with two-centred heads. The east chancel window is of three lights with Geometric tracery under a two-centred head, with a label featuring foliage stops. Square-headed aisle windows have two and three lights with Perpendicular tracery. The south porch has a moulded four-centred head arch above a canopied niche with pinnacles and crocketted finials, containing a worn figure believed to be St John the Baptist. A three-centred, chamfered south doorway has continuous jambs.

Inside, the chancel arch is two-centred and chamfered, dying into flat jambs. The tower arch is also two-centred, with two orders dying into flat jambs. A three-bay arcade features two-centred, moulded arches on piers with four subsidiary shafts and capitals. The organ chamber has two two-centred, roll-moulded arches. The nave roof is a combination of arch-braced and scissor-truss construction, while the chancel and aisle roofs have arch-braced collar-truss structures, both resting on corbels. A 15th-century octagonal stone font with quatrefoil panels, each having pairs of fleurons above, stands on a moulded octagonal pier atop a square base. Remains of a rood vice are visible, alongside a recess with a two-centred, moulded, cusped head containing a recumbent effigy of a man in 14th-century dress, believed to be Alexander Mobray. A pedimented marble wall plate commemorates Samuel and Ann Clark, dated 1761. Other features include 18th-century floor slabs, a reset 14th-century piscina in the chancel, a 19th-century pulpit with blind tracery, 19th-century benches, and 19th-century glass.