Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

Parish church of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, restored in 1884. The building has stone rubble walls, roughly coursed, with a gable-ended slate roof. It comprises a nave, north and south aisle, north transept, west tower and south porch.

The aisles are probably of slightly different dates to judge from the differences in their arcades, though it is unclear which is the earlier. The north and south arcades are formed of two five-bay granite arcades. The north arcade has Pevsner A-type piers with moulded cup capitals and four-centred moulded arches. The south arcade is similar but with shallower simply moulded capitals and a taller arch with double four-centred arched head. The original wagon roofs appear to be complete, with moulded ribs and carved bosses; the north chapel and transept have carved wall-plates, and wooden angel corbels may date from the restoration. There is a painted ceilufe at the east end of the nave with original carved angels on the wall-plate, and the north chapel roof is more elaborately carved.

The three-stage west tower has a wood shingle spire in diminishing stages. It features set-back buttresses with carved stone masks at the corners, set between them at the top of the first stage. The belfry openings are two-light with cinquefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil above. The double roll and hollow-moulded two-centre arched west doorway has a hoodmould. The three-light Perpendicular west window has restored mullions. A single arched light appears on the second stage. A semi-octagonal stair turret on the north side of the tower has small arched and quatrefoil lights.

The north aisle has a 19th-century three-light Decorated-style window at its west end. A granite-moulded four-centred arched north doorway is accompanied by a tall early 16th-century three-light granite mullion window with segmental heads to the west. The north transept has a moulded 17th-century three-light mullion window at low level on its west side. On its north face are two three-light early 16th-century windows similar to those on the north aisle, with a small 19th-century two-centred doorway between them; a similar doorway at lower ground level appears on the east side. The north side of the north chapel has a 19th-century Early English style three-light window. At the east end, the aisles are parallel with the chancel end. The east window of the north aisle is a late Perpendicular five-light window in two stages with no cusping. The chancel has a good granite Perpendicular east window of five lights. The south aisle east window is in similar style but restored. The south chapel has a 19th-century window and a shallow rood stair projection to its west with a small arched light. The south aisle has two early 16th-century windows similar to those on the north aisle. The one-storey gabled south porch has moulded shafts and a double arched four-centred head to the doorway, with a small slate sundial above.

The interior is of high quality. The porch has a wagon roof with moulded ribs whose wall-plates have been replaced. The south doorway has a chamfered sandstone two-centred arch with a heavy panelled oak door. The porch floor is partly cobbled in a geometric design. The internal walls of the church have been stripped of plaster apart from the north transept and a section of the north wall, which retains old plaster and traces of a 16th-century wall painting of St Christopher. In the south wall is a segmental-headed granite doorway to former rood loft stairs.

The church retains some 16th-century carved bench ends in the nave and north aisle. A late 16th or early 17th-century five-sided panelled pulpit with an overhanging top, richly carved on its soffit and supported on carved brackets, stands in the church. The lectern is constructed from parts of the old screen. At the west end of the nave is a pew constructed from decorated pieces of 17th-century panelling. The altar rails are late 17th or early 18th-century, with alternate barley-twist and fluted balusters and a central gate. A square Norman font on four thick pillars at each corner with a central stem is present, with a cupola-shaped 18th-century font cover with ball finial.

Several very good late 17th and early 18th-century wall memorials survive, notably an elaborate one on the south wall to John Lethbridge, Gent., of Deckport in Hatherleigh parish, who died 1706. It features marble pilasters and a broken pediment with a cherub to either side and a heraldic shield at its centre.

This church retains much of its medieval fabric and has an impressive interior.