Church of St. John the Baptist

The Church of St. John the Baptist is an Anglican parish church dating from 1848 to 1851, built on 12th-century foundations. The architect is unrecorded but may have been T.H. Wyatt. It is constructed of flint with limestone dressings and has a tiled roof. The church comprises a nave, chancel, and a south porch raised as a tower.

The nave has north and south doors; the north door retains sections of a late 12th-century lozenge, bead, and chevron arch. The nave also has square-headed trefoiled windows with three and two lights. The chancel incorporates two reset narrow lancet windows from the late 12th to early 13th century, and a three-light east window with mask terminals on the hood mould. A short, two-stage tower sits above the porch, featuring angle buttresses, two-light bell openings, and a crenellated parapet with gargoyle spouts, topped with a pyramidal tiled roof.

The interior of the nave is rendered and colourwashed, with a 19th-century wagon roof. A narrow chancel opening has an arch of two orders, resting on a medieval bead cavetto string around the imposts. The chancel is divided into two bays and was stencilled in 1876 in memory of Fulmer William Fowle. It features encaustic tiles, a shallow single sedilia with painted curtaining, and a piscina with a bowl on an attached half shaft. The east window contains a glazed Crucifixion dating from 1876.

Notable fittings include a limestone font in a 12th-century style, a pierced pyramidal font cover of the 17th century, an oak 19th-century pulpit, and pews, some with slab ends dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, with others built to match. A simple marble tablet by Osmund of Sarum commemorates Mary Tarrant, who died in 1883. A detached painted metal creed board is also present.

Within the porch are a small 16th to 17th century oak churchwardens coffer on legs, secured with three iron locks, and a 17th-century stool.

Historical notes indicate that Reverend Thomas Fowle served as vicar from 1793 to 1797, having been a pupil of Reverend George Austen; it is believed he was engaged to Jane Austen's sister, Cassandra, but died of yellow fever in 1797 while serving as a military chaplain in the West Indies. Jane Austen is noted to have attended church at Allington. The church listing was enhanced in 2017 to mark the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s death.