Church Of St John The Baptist

This parish church shows evidence of 14th-century work at the east end, with a 15th-century nave, south aisle, and west tower. Sir Gilbert Scott undertook restoration work in 1874, adding the north aisle, and there is evidence of considerable 19th-century rebuilding throughout. A late 19th-century south-west vestry was also added. The building is constructed of stone rubble with granite dressings and has a slate roof with 19th-century ridge tiles; some 19th-century freestone dressings are also present. The tower features courses of granite lacing. The architectural style is mostly Perpendicular.

The chancel and south chancel chapel arches may be 14th-century but were altered in the late 15th century, probably when the south aisle was rebuilt. The three easternmost roof bays of the south chancel chapel are probably 16th-century, and the chapel may have been extended eastwards at this date. Scott's north aisle follows the Perpendicular style, and he also appears to have rebuilt part of the south arcade. The 1874 fittings, particularly the woodwork, are outstanding.

The south arcade has five bays, with two bays to the chancel; the north arcade has four bays, with one bay to the chancel. The chancel has a 19th-century plinth which continues to the west end of the south chancel chapel and a coped east gable with a cross at the apex. The 15th-century granite Perpendicular east window has Y tracery in a moulded architrave with a hoodmould.

The south wall shows a marked change in plane, with the two easternmost bays bending southwards. The south-east diagonal buttress with set-offs is probably 19th-century. Three other buttresses with set-offs on the south side are of different sizes and probably of different dates, and the survival of the original plinth in only one bay suggests that the south wall was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. The rafters on the south side project beyond the walls and are exposed below the eaves.

The south aisle has a 16th-century Perpendicular three-light uncusped granite east window with hoodmould. The two easternmost windows on the south side are uncusped three-light granite 16th-century windows with moulded architraves, hoodmoulds and carved label stops; one has a relieving arch above. Between them is a chamfered, stopped granite priest's door with an almost flat arch, probably also 16th-century. The two westernmost aisle windows are three-light freestone 19th-century Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds and carved label stops, probably dating from 1874. The west window of the aisle is a three-light granite 15th-century window with a hoodmould and carved label stops, with some replacement of tracery and mullions.

The north aisle of 1874 has coped gables at the ends and exposed rafters below the eaves. There is one buttress with set-offs and no window to the easternmost bay or to the west end to allow space for some grand 18th-century monuments which were re-sited in the aisle by Scott. The east window is a three-light 19th-century granite Perpendicular window with a moulded architrave, hoodmould and carved label stops. The easternmost and westernmost windows of the aisle are three-light freestone 19th-century windows with moulded architraves, hoodmoulds and carved label stops. Between them, Scott appears to have incorporated an early 19th-century two-light freestone cusped window with a moulded architrave, probably to preserve the commemorative glass.

The masonry of the west tower is striking, with alternating bands of stone rubble and granite. The unbuttressed tower has three stages with tall battlementing and rectangular corner pinnacles with tall crocketted finials crowned with crosses. The north-east stair turret projects at the first stage only. There is a moulded string above the plinth and chamfered strings mark the stages. The west face has a moulded arched granite doorway with carved spandrels in a square-headed architrave; the returns to the hoodmould are unusually long. A three-light granite Perpendicular west window above has a hoodmould, with some replacement of mullions. There are two-light chamfered belfry openings on all four faces.

Interior

The nave walls are unplastered. There is an odd arrangement to both the chancel and south chancel chapel arches. The double-chamfered arches and the capitals from which they spring are probably 14th-century, but at the junction with the south arcade the capitals rest on what appears to be a remnant of a 14th-century pier which oversails the slender 15th-century pier below and acts as a corbel carrying the arches. Scott has repeated this arrangement on the north side of the chancel arch.

The arcades are also unusual. The piers are conventional Perpendicular monoliths of four hollows and four shafts, but the two westernmost arches on both arcades have shallow mouldings while the easternmost arches are double-chamfered, and there are variations to the capitals. The double-chamfered tower arch is carried on moulded capitals on short shafts. The floor level of the tower is lower than the nave.

The roofs are fine unceiled 15th-century and 19th-century wagons with carved ribs, bosses and wall plates. The nave roof has some 19th-century repair including a replaced wall plate with 19th-century demi-angels and some 19th-century painting. The south aisle roof is largely unrestored except for part of the wall plate and similar 19th-century demi-angels. The south chancel chapel roof is almost wholly original; the three easternmost roof bays appear to be later work, probably 16th-century, with shallower carving to the bosses. The chancel roof is wholly 1874 with angels standing on the corbels at wall plate level and enriched painting above the altar. The north aisle roof is a 19th-century version of the medieval south aisle roof.

The church retains a complete set of 19th-century tiling, including some stamped tiling, with local marble chancel steps. There is a fine 1874 Purbeck reredos extending across the width of the chancel as a panelled frieze divided by moulded shafts with a moulded cornice and cresting at the top. The side panels have cusped crocketted blind ogival arches with diaper decoration beneath. The central five panels consist of a carved cross in the middle flanked by the symbols of the evangelists within quatrefoils.

On the south side of the chancel is a 19th-century moulded arched granite aumbrey above a piscina adjoining an arched sedilia with shields carved in the spandrels. A second 19th-century aumbry with carved spandrels is on the north wall.

The font may be a 15th-century recutting of a 12th-century font of the Lifton type. The square bowl has projecting mouldings which may once have been profile heads above chamfered corners. The sides of the bowl are decorated with blind trefoil-headed arcading and the bowl rests on a two-tier shaft.

Fixed to the west end of the north aisle is a large Baroque monument to Christopher Harris of Hayne, buried 1718, Mary Harris his wife, died 1726, and their two infant children, all in white and grey marble. Freestanding three-quarter-size figures of the husband and wife stand on a large chest with a moulded plinth and cornice. Fixed to the wall behind them is a sarcophagus and obelisk below festoons (the right-hand festoon missing) and a cartouche with armorial bearings, all framed by pilasters supporting an open pediment crowned by a torch with flanking putti. The figures are dressed in Roman attire but the husband has an 18th-century wig. The two infant children are represented lying between their parents. A contemporary wrought-iron grate surrounds the monument, which is set within a blind arch of 1874 that acts as a frame.

On the north wall of the north aisle is a wall monument to John Harris of Hayne, died 1770, and Margaret, his wife. This triangular-shaped monument has a wide inscription panel below a narrower panel containing two portrait medallions. Above the portraits an obelisk rises with armorial bearings above a sarcophagus. The reddish marble obelisk may be a 19th-century replacement.

On the south wall of the south chancel chapel is a late 17th-century monument to William Harris of Kenegie, died 1661, and other members of the Harris family, with Corinthian columns and pilasters supporting a round-headed arch with a central inscription panel below a skull and swags of drapery. An additional inscription panel of 1709 has been added at the bottom. The Harris tabard, helmet and gauntlet also hang in the chapel.

The 1874 woodwork is some of the finest in the county of Devon, with a full set of rectangular bench ends with foliage and figure designs modelled on early 16th-century precedents, fine choir stalls with blind traceried panels divided by blind traceried stiles, an ogee-headed font cover with crockets and pinnacles, and an eight-sided drum pulpit on a stone wine-glass stem. The pulpit has crocketted ogee arches in the panels with shields carved below and applied pinnacles between the panels. The stem is decorated with blind tracery. The altar has blind traceried panels above a frieze of quatrefoils and the altar rail has panels of open tracery below a moulded rail. A three-bay screen fills the tower arch, possibly inspired by the medieval screen at Marystow. The organ case is also of 1874 with painted pipes on the west and east side and two tiers of linen-fold panelling below a frame with open tracery on the west side and plate tracery on the south side. A contemporary timber lectern is also present.

The east window, east window of the north aisle, and easternmost window of the north side contain stained glass by Lavers and Barraud. A fine tower, good roofs and a remarkable set of 19th-century woodwork make this an outstanding building.