Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is an Anglican parish church of cruciform plan with a crossing tower, located in Great Rissington. The building dates from the 12th century, with significant phases of construction and alteration in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was largely rebuilt in 1873, possibly by S.L. Pearson.

The exterior is constructed of coursed squared and dressed limestone interspersed with bands of ashlar, with dressed stone quoins and a stone slate roof. A lean-to vestry stands on the north side of the chancel.

The nave was rebuilt around 1500 and restored in the late 19th century. Its south wall contains two-light pointed stone-mullioned windows with quatrefoils. A projecting 19th-century porch stands towards the west end, flanked by an early-to-mid 18th-century headstone with a segmental head and ornate carving including a winged cherub's head, foliate scrollwork, and bunches of grapes.

The large 19th-century west window comprises two 2-light pointed windows with quatrefoils beneath a rose window, all set back within a pointed surround. The north wall retains early 16th-century features including a blocked Tudor-arched doorway with quatrefoils in the spandrels and a moulded rectangular surround. Two winged and crowned angels holding shields are carved in relief on the upper corners. Two 2-light cinquefoil-headed windows with hollow-moulded chamfers and hoods (one with circular stops, one with plain stops) also survive on this wall.

The north transept was rebuilt in the 14th century and has a squat segmental pointed 3-light window with a moulded stopped hood in its gable. An early east window with three trefoil-headed lights and quatrefoils is set within a rectangular surround with a roll-moulded hood. A monument to Josiah Palmer (died circa 1772) is built into the wall to the right of this window, featuring fluted pilasters with decorative capitals flanking the inscription.

The vestry was added in the late 19th century and contains two 19th-century lancet windows and two plank doorways within flat-chamfered segmental-pointed archways. A single lancet appears in its east-facing wall.

The chancel was restored in the 13th-century style. Its east window comprises three graded lancets with stopped hoods featuring either foliate or head stops. Two 19th-century pointed 2-light windows in the south wall have relieving arches and hoods with foliate stops.

The south transept was restored in the late 19th century but retains a single 12th-century round-headed window with a hollow-chamfered surround in its left-hand return. A 16th-century four-light south window (restored in the 19th century) has four-centred arched heads to each light set within a rectangular casement moulded surround with a moulded hood featuring diamond stops. A sundial with a metal gnomon stands immediately above this window. A similar three-light window appears in the left-hand return.

The three-stage tower has a base dating from around 1200, with upper stages rebuilt in the 15th century. Diagonal buttresses and a string course separate the stages. The second stage has two-light belfry windows with stone louvres and segmental-headed hoods with large stops in the form of human heads. A battlemented parapet is supported by a string course with head gargoyles offset from the corners, and crocketed pinnacles stand at each corner.

The porch was rebuilt in 1873 and features a pointed entrance with engaged 13th-century columns on either side. Boot scrapers flank the entrance, and stone bench seats line the inside walls. A mutilated 15th-century carved stone panel, formerly painted, depicts the Crucifixion in its upper part and the Ascension below. A shallow canopy and brattished cornice were reset in the east wall.

The interior comprises a plastered five-bay nave, a crossing with north and south transepts (the south transept containing a chantry chapel), and a chancel. Pointed arches spring from the crossing on all four sides. The west arch has two orders of semi-cylindrical shafts with scalloped capitals. The north respond of the chancel arch is similar. The arch opening into the north transept springs from single responds with heavy foliated capitals and is probably slightly later in date. The south transept has plain square-cornered responds; its arch is probably the latest of the four. The nave has 19th-century arch-braced roof trusses rising from 19th-century corbels. Straddle beams and plank boarding date to the 19th century at the crossing. The south transept has a wagon roof, while the north transept and chancel have 19th-century roofs.

The north-east corner of the north transept contains a 15th-century cinquefoil-headed niche decorated with stencilled stars of David. Diagonally set cream and red floor tiles cover the nave and transepts, while stone flags pave the chancel. A 14th-century piscina with an ogee-curved head is reset in the south wall of the south transept.

Pointed arches span the windows and run along the north wall of the chancel, rising from 13th-century engaged columns with keel mouldings and capitals. Similar engaged columns stand over the chancel east window.

Furnishings and fittings include a 15th-century octagonal font at the west end of the nave and an organ erected in 1940 at the same location. The pews date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The pulpit, desk, lectern, dorsal, painted riddle posts and curtains, and the screen dividing the chantry chapel from the rest of the south transept were designed in 1940 by H. Stratton Davies.

Monuments in the church include a white marble plaque in the nave commemorating those who died in World War I. The south transept contains four earlier monuments: a simple oval marble plaque to John Ansell (died 1796) and Betty Ansell (died 1813); a limestone monument to Mary Crips (died 1739) with a winged angel's head and two fluted columns; a monument to Thomas Cambray (died 1740) with an oval inscription plaque and winged cherub's heads; and a fine limestone monument to John Barnarde, Gent (died 1621) featuring two kneeling figures in bold relief with a winged angel's head above, marginal panels with foliate, knotwork, hourglass and skull motifs, Jacobean scrollwork incorporating the letters 'I.B.', a heraldic shield, Vitruvian scrollwork, and corbels in the form of human heads.

The chancel east window contains 19th-century stained glass, while the nave west window contains 20th-century stained glass.