Symondsbury Parish Church (St John The Baptist)

The Church of St John the Baptist in Symondsbury is a Grade I listed building, dating back to the 14th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 15th, 17th, and 20th centuries. It comprises a nave, a crossing and tower, north and south transepts, a chancel, a south porch and a north vestry. The church is constructed of lias rubble-stone with ashlar dressings, and has slate roofs with stone slates at the eaves.

The nave is from the 14th century, featuring 15th-century window insertions to the south wall. A blocked 14th-century two-centred window is present at the west end, alongside 15th-century windows of three lights with super mullions and renewed tracery, labelled with head stops. The south porch is 15th-century, with a pointed archway and conventional responds, and an embattled parapet with diagonally set gargoyles. A 19th-century four-light window with Y-tracery is located in the south transept, accompanied by short 20th-century buttresses. The central tower has three stages, an embattled parapet, and gargoyles. The second stage has small single lights with trefoil heads, while the bell-stage features two trefoiled lights in a square head with a label and returned stops. A string course and embattled parapet with gargoyles complete the tower's exterior. The chancel’s main fabric dates from around the 17th century, incorporating a re-set 15th-century east window with renewed mullions. Two 17th-century Perpendicular-style windows are in the south wall, along with a doorway with chamfered jambs and pointed head, and a re-set trefoiled head above it, possibly from the 14th century.

Inside the nave, the walls are unplastered, revealing a segmental waggon-type roof from the 15th century, bossed at the intersections. A line of a former roof is visible on the east wall. A 17th-century studded plank door leads from the porch, and a doorway in the east wall of the nave above the crossing-arch suggests access to a former rood loft. The crossing has 14th-century pointed arches of two continuous chamfered orders, leading to the transepts. The north and south arches to the transepts have moulded imposts and bases, with massive corbelling supporting the arches of the second stage. The transepts and chancel have plastered waggon roofs with moulded wall plates, and squints provide views into the chancel from the transepts.

A re-set consecration cross is present on the south transept gable, along with stone gable copings with cross-heads. An external stair to the tower is situated between the nave and the north transept. The interior also contains an 18th-century hexagonal wooden pulpit with fielded panels, a 1730s communion rail forming a square enclosure with turned posts, balusters, and a moulded top-rail, and late 18th and 19th-century memorial tablets. A 19th-century font features a stone bowl with four marbled colonettes and stiff-leaf capitals. Flagstones cover the nave and crossing. Early 20th-century choir stalls are adorned with carved wooden medallions depicting naturalistic leaves, fish, fruit, and animals.