Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is an Anglican parish church of around 1300 with a 15th-century west tower, substantially restored around 1860. The building is constructed of rubble stone with a stone slate roof and coped gables.

The church consists of a nave and chancel in one, with a south porch and a thin west tower. The main body of the church has restored two-light windows with Y-tracery and hoodmoulds, a moulded sill course to the nave, and angle buttresses. The south side features two-light windows either side of the porch, while the chancel has a single-light window from 1905 (replacing an earlier two-light), a 19th-century door, and a two-light window.

The south porch dates from the late 15th century and is ashlar-fronted with a coped gable and sundial. It has a moulded plinth and a broad four-centred arched entry with a hoodmould and a carved shield over. Within the porch is a plank door set within a 14th-century broad hollow-moulded pointed arch with a hoodmould, damaged, with a niche over and stringcourse on each side.

The chancel has a 19th-century three-light east window with reticulated tracery, a north side two-light window with Y-tracery, and a 19th-century lean-to vestry. The nave contains two Y-traceried windows with hoodmoulds and sill course, and a blocked pointed north door.

The 15th-century tower is roughcast with angle buttresses, small two-light bell-openings, a cornice with angle gargoyles, and an ashlar embattled parapet. It has a narrow west door and a three-light Perpendicular window above.

Interior

The original roof timbers have been strengthened with heavy 17th-century framing on tie-beams. The nave has a collar rafter roof with straight braces, while the chancel has a similar roof with curved braces and was probably formerly ceiled. The tower arch has a two-chamfer segmental-pointed head and is infilled with royal arms dated 1602, which were formerly in the tympanum over the chancel screen but removed in 1983. A tower screen by Sir Robert Lorimer dates from 1928.

The windows retain moulded sill courses and hoodmoulds, with some 17th-century painted texts: the Creed and Psalm 72 verses 1-3 on the north side, and the Lord's Prayer on the south side.

The chancel screen is a fine timber structure, basically 14th-century with a heavily moulded top and quatrefoil frieze. It has a centre opening and five ogee-headed lights on each side. The lower panels were removed in the 17th century, and some pinnacles were added on each side of the centre.

An exceptional 15th-century boarded tympanum with paintings was concealed until 1983, when it was revealed to contain two censing angels on each side of the Ten Commandments, set against a deep red ground. The lower part is missing. It is suggested that the Ten Commandments are a 16th-century replacement for a rood. The chancel walls show evidence of a blocked two-light window to the north (blocked for the vestry) and a blocked window to the south around the 1905 lancet.

A shouldered-headed piscina and 19th-century sanctuary paving are present, with an organ on the north side.

Fittings include 17th-century pews in the nave (cut down) and matching pews from around 1900 in the nave and stalls in the chancel. There is a 19th-century octagonal font with a 17th-century wood cover. A fine two-decker heavily carved pulpit and reading desk dated 1626 is present, though the sounding board is missing. On the north window sill is the circular head of a circa 1300 churchyard cross with a Crucifixion on one side and the Virgin and Child on the other.

The stained glass is of fine quality. A south window contains pre-Raphaelite style glass from 1866, while another south window has glass of 1932 by W. Glasby. The north side has glass from 1920 in the head of the former north door and 19th-century patterned glass elsewhere. The chancel has a reredos from around 1900 designed to match the 17th-century pulpit, 1930 neo-Georgian communion rails, and an east window with glass from around 1860, a north window with glass from around 1890, and a south window with glass from 1863. Various 19th-century wall monuments are also present.