Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

An important and large Anglican parish church of group value grade I, located in Bishopstone village. The building is primarily of 13th, 14th and 15th-century date, though it was substantially restored in 1836 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and again in 1858 by T.H. Wyatt. The church was formerly a living of the Bishops of Winchester.

The exterior is constructed of rubble stone with flint and dressed limestone, with a tiled roof featuring a hip to the west. The plan is aisle-less cruciform, with a south porch and north vestry. The south porch is a gabled two-storey structure dating from the 19th-century rebuild, featuring a double chamfered doorway and cusped lancets to the side walls. The upper floor has cusped lancets flanking an image niche, with diagonal buttresses and a sundial. The south side of the nave contains two 3-light Perpendicular windows either side of the porch, with a parapet displaying saddleback coping. The south transept contains a notable 3-light window of 14th-century date with reticulated tracery and multifoil over to its south side, diagonal buttresses, and a parapet with quatrefoils. A particularly fine feature is the lean-to two-bay open arcaded burial chamber with ribbed vault and chest tomb within, constructed of stone with a roof and heavy buttresses, possibly built for a patron. The transept's west and east sides feature two tall 2-light windows with reticulated tracery.

The chancel is distinguished by two large 14th-century windows to its north and south sides. A pointed priest's door displays a crocketed aedicule with compressed rib vault, and a quatrefoil frieze runs along the parapet. The east end features a 4-light window with ogee heads and flowing tracery with multifoil in a bow-sided triangle above. A polygonal three-stage stair turret with cusped lancets projects at the north-east angle of the chancel. A 14th-century vestry or sacristy on the north side of the chancel has a cusped lancet and ogee quatrefoil frieze to its shallow-pitched roof. The north transept contains 2-light 14th-century windows to its east and west sides with buttresses carried up to the parapet, and a 3-light window with reticulated tracery to the north. Two 3-light Perpendicular windows flank a moulded pointed doorway on the north side of the nave. The west end has diagonal buttresses, a Tudor-arched doorway with ribbed door, and a 3-light 14th-century window above. A two-stage crossing tower stands at the centre, with 2-light louvred Perpendicular windows to each side, a string course and battlemented parapet.

Interior features are equally notable. The porch contains a newel stone staircase to the upper room and a 14th-century pointed arched doorway with double studded doors and a stoup to the right. The nave retains an original four-bay ribbed ceiling with moulded soffits and stone floors, with two stone corbels on the east wall possibly from a former rood loft. The crossing displays double chamfered pointed arches with broach stops and a flat ceiling on corbels.

The south transept is particularly fine, with a two-bay tierceron vaulted ceiling and a moulded string course carried over the windows. A crocketed piscina canopy adorns the east wall, possibly by Pugin. The south wall features a crocketed niche and a fine gothic-style canopied monument by Pugin to the Reverend George Montgomery, died 1842. A benefaction tablet on the north wall records Montgomery's gift for church restoration, with the date 1836 recorded in the head of a 12th-century former window facing the crossing. The north transept has an arched ribbed roof with carved bosses, an ogee niche on the north wall, and a fine segmental-arched niche with cusping and ballflowers also on the north wall, containing two coffin lids.

The two-bay chancel features a fine rib-vaulted tierceron roof with ornate three-seat sedilia displaying crocketed pinnacles. An aumbry and piscina flank a reredos of reset panelling, with image niches flanking the east window. The north wall displays a triptych painting.

The church contains especially fine woodwork, possibly imported from Spain and elsewhere. A Late Medieval pulpit features reset carved panels depicting a woman, a bishop, and a relief of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, with similar reset panelling to the reading desk. The choir stalls display panels and good 19th-century pews occupy the north transept. An octagonal stone font with conical cover stands on the north side of the nave. Royal Arms of George III appear on the east wall of the nave.

The stained glass is of high quality, notably in the east window dedicated to the Montgomerys and the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, dated 1836, designed by Pugin and made by Wailes. Original medieval glass is said to remain in the sacristy.

Monuments include a relief-carved demi-figure of an unidentified man, died 1612, in the north transept with a relief-carved coat of arms of the Vaughan family to its right. A stone tablet over the south doorway commemorates Michael Throope, died 1737, and a tablet over the north door commemorates William Rowden, died 1770. Additional 18th and 19th-century tablets are present throughout.