Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a church built around 1870. It is a building of group value, appreciated for its architectural and historical significance. The church is constructed from squared rubble with brick dressings, and has a slate roof with coped gable ends and apex crosses. It is designed in the Decorated style. The building consists of a nave, a chancel, and a south transeptal tower. The tower has two stages with crocketted pinnacles at the four corners and a stepped parapet. It features a 4-centred arched bell-opening to the west side with a louvre, a segmental brick arch to the north side with two 4-centred arched lights, and a pointed arched bell-opening to the east side with traceried mouchettes, spandrels and a timber lintel, with brick sills and jambs. The south side of the tower has a 2-light bell-opening with ashlar dressings, above a single light window, all with 4-centred arches. A reused 17th-century ovolo moulded window surround with foliated stops to the base of the jambs and thick glazing bars to a 9-pane window is on the north side of the second stage. The south side of the nave has two 2-light pointed arch windows with quatrefoil and hoodmoulds, with a gabled ventilator above. A south porch, situated towards the gable end, has a chamfered and stopped surround to its south doorway, along with a slated gabled roof with an apex wooden cross and carved bargeboards. Pointed arched east and west windows of three lights with hoodmoulds are also present. There are two buttresses with offsets to the north side, and three pointed arched windows of two lights with hoodmoulds. Single lancets with hoodmoulds are located to each side of the chancel alongside a pointed arched doorway on the east side of the vestry and a 2-light window on the south side.

Inside the church, all openings have Victorian stencilled Vitruvian scrolled surrounds. A significant amount of reused late medieval carving is present, reportedly originating from Barnstaple Guildhall. Two 19th-century arch braced trusses support the nave roof, corbelled out with elaborately carved mythical beasts supported on consoles. Two late 16th-century carved bench ends are found at the front of the two north-side pews. The stone pulpit has a drum of four facets with Gothic tracery to the reused panels, with a top rail treated with lunettes and variously carved heads between linenfolds. The returned end of the open facet displays a tall carving of an Oriental figure supported on a mythical beast. Above the priest’s door is an opening to the tower filled with three panels of a reused screen with flame finials to the three ogee-headed lights, sexfoil tracery to the heads. The hexagonal font contains a reused carving with a marble bowl, linenfold panels to the facets, and blind tracery to the panels on the stem. A reredos has painted panels depicting Truth, Valour, Peace on the left, and Patience, Valour, Wisdom on the right. Four panels above the altar have a reused top rail with grotesque figures to each end, and lozenge carvings to the panels. A stained glass window to the central nave window on the north side, dating to 1876, depicts the Chichester family.