Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church with a 14th-century tower. The remainder of the church was extensively rebuilt in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and restored and partly rebuilt in 1865 by W.B. Baker of Stroud. A large south aisle and chapel were added between 1894 and 1896. The church is constructed of ashlar limestone, with a stone and artificial stone slate roof.

The church consists of a nave and chancel, a south aisle and chapel, a north vestry, and a west tower. The two-stage tower has Decorated tracery to the west window and diagonal offset corner buttresses. It is topped with two-light belfry openings, stone louvres, and a crenellated parapet. The west porch has a gabled, pointed archway; the base of the aisle wall incorporates older masonry including a stone dated 1719, while the upper part of the gable features a cusped circular west window, added between 1894 and 1896. There are three geometrical traceried windows to the south wall of the aisle and three Decorated-style windows to the north nave wall. Parapet gables mark the east ends of the chancel and south aisle. The chancel window has Decorated tracery, while the aisle window has geometrical tracery. A 20th-century gabled north vestry is present, and the organ loft has a hipped roof.

Inside, there is a 19th-century two-bay pointed-arch arcade separating the nave and aisle, which are of similar width and height. A low-pitched ribbed ceiling covers the nave, with a five-bay arched braced collar truss roof over the aisle. The chancel has cusped roof trusses supported on carved corbels with shafts to the eastern bay, terminating in carved angels. A shouldered arched doorway to the vestry has a quatrefoil openwork panel above. There is a curiously placed pointed arched doorway central to the east end of the aisle. The church contains a font, pulpit, pews, and choir stalls, all dating from the 19th century. Several monuments are present, including a wall tablet with an elaborate border containing cherubs’ heads commemorating Sarah Cooke, who died in 1726. Others commemorate James Mitchel, Gent Lord of Randwick, who died in 1758, and Ann, wife of Thomas White, who died in 1784. Later 19th-century stained glass is in some windows. A Queen Anne hatchment dated 1711 is set into the west wall of the aisle.