Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

An Anglican parish church of outstanding historical significance, positioned on the south side of Stockton High Street. The building spans multiple periods of development from the late 12th century through to the 17th century, with a comprehensive restoration undertaken in 1879.

The church is constructed of dressed limestone with some flint chequers and features lead roofs with coped verges, except for the chancel which has a Welsh slate roof. It follows a traditional plan comprising a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, a north porch, and a chancel with north vestry.

The exterior demonstrates the church's long building history. The gabled 19th-century porch features a chamfered pointed doorway with a coped verge to its tiled roof. The north aisle displays a cusped ogee-headed lancet to the right and a chamfered lancet to the west end, with a lean-to projection to the left sheltering a monument. A plain cornice and parapet run along the aisle, with cast-iron rainwater goods dated 1879. The east end contains a chamfered planked 19th-century door and a stepped three-light 17th-century window with round-arched lights and hoodmould. The chancel's north side has a segmental pointed door with 19th-century ribbed panels, diagonal buttresses, and a 19th-century plate tracery east window with 14th-century mask terminals to the hoodmould, crowned by a heraldic crest and the date 1840. Two 13th-century lancets occupy the chancel's south side. The south aisle features 14th-century two-light square-headed windows with cusped ogee lights at each end, buttresses with offsets, and two further 14th-century two-light windows to the south, with a central six-panelled door set in a pointed arch. Two stone memorial tablets dated 1669 to Melior Benett of Pythouse are set into the wall, alongside a 1622 tablet to Joahne Maton. A cornice runs above the plain parapet. The nave clerestory contains three two-light square-headed windows with cinquefoil cusping on both north and south sides. The three-stage west tower features pilaster buttresses, a 19th-century pointed south doorway, and a 19th-century west lancet with a string course to the second stage. The second stage shows a pair of 19th-century lancets to the west and a blocked chamfered light to the north. The rebuilt bell stage contains a single lancet with wooden louvres to the south, a square chamfered window to the north, and a pair of lancets to the west. A moulded string course with corner gargoyles leads to the battlemented parapet.

The interior reveals the church's architectural development across centuries. The porch contains a 19th-century double chamfered pointed inner door beneath an arch-braced collar-rafter roof. The nave features a three-bay 19th-century king post roof with V struts. The three-bay arcades showcase two late 12th-century double chamfered pointed arches to the west, mounted on cylindrical piers with scalloped capitals (the southern ones embellished with beading or zig-zag ornament), with early 14th-century pointed arches to the east. A low 13th-century tower arch on half-piers frames a lancet window with splayed reveals looking into the tower.

The north aisle contains a baptistry at its west end, fitted with a mosaic floor and dado in memory of John Barrington Yeatman (died 1893). A 12th-century cylindrical stone font with scallops retains a fine 17th-century wooden cover. The south aisle houses a pointed piscina incorporated into an early 17th-century monument, and features a 19th-century moulded compartmental ceiling on stone corbels decorated with the Signs of the Evangelists. A restored moulded pointed 14th-century effigy niche in the south wall contains the effigy of a lady recumbent on her side.

A solid wall between the chancel and nave features a central pointed low doorway flanked by chamfered pointed squints. A wooden screen, designed by Bodley, Garner and Hare and executed by Franklin of Oxford and Brideman of Lichfield, was installed in 1910 as a gift from the Bishop of Worcester at Stockton House. One stone corbel from the medieval rood remains to the left of the chancel archway.

The chancel is fitted with a 19th-century plaster ceiling with wooden ribs and a moulded tie-beam, with a painted frieze on foliated corbels and a polychrome tiled floor. Chancel fittings include a 19th-century wooden communion rail, a 19th-century trefoiled piscina, and a tiled reredos. A 17th-century communion table is preserved. The east window contains fine stained glass of the Corfe family dating to 1885.

The nave contains 19th-century wooden fittings including a pulpit with open arcaded panels matching the communion rails, and cast-iron light fittings. The Royal Arms, painted on board and dated 1746, hang above the tower arch. The baptistry and east window of the north aisle contain stained glass believed to be Flemish in origin. A south aisle window commemorates Richard Nelsome (died 1888). A piece of roof timber preserved on the south aisle floor is inscribed with the date 1757 and the name M. Fleming, recording a roof restoration.

The church contains an exceptional collection of monuments spanning the 16th century to the 19th century. The south aisle features a two-panelled chest tomb to Jerome and Elizabeth Poticary (died 1590) with strapwork cartouches and balusters, with brass plates in moulded surrounds above. A marble cartouche of 1708 to Henry Greenhill displays a skull, putti, nautical instruments, an urn, and a torch atop a cornice set into the wall, attributed to either Thomas Davis or Nost. Early 19th-century classical marbles commemorate the Pinchard family.

The north aisle contains a fine Elizabethan tomb to John Topp of Stockton House (died 1640) featuring a two-bay arched recess with strapwork and floral carving, composite coupled columns, and a cartouche and obelisk pinnacle above, with effigies of a man and woman and back panels showing kneeling children beneath shell hoods. A 1664 wall monument to Joannes Topp displays black Ionic columns, an entablature with a broken segmental pediment, and a heraldic cartouche with fine lettering. A Gothic-style stone tablet commemorates Henry Biggs (died 1800) and other family members including Henry Godolphin Biggs (died 1877). A white marble cartouche records Alexander Topp (died 1732).

The chancel contains a marble tablet to John Terry (died 1625) and a coloured stone cartouche with drapery dated 1703 on the north wall. A large classical marble tablet with fluted pilasters, shaped apron, and an obelisk with urn commemorates Reverend David Price (died 1771), with a smaller tablet to William Pinchard (died 1815). Nineteenth-century Gothic monuments honour Reverend Roger St Barbe (died 1854) and Reverend Thomas Miles (died 1858), both by Osmond of Sarum.