Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St. John the Baptist

An Anglican parish church of significant antiquity, with the main structure dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, substantially rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries. The nave north wall was rebuilt in the early-to-mid 19th century, and the chancel underwent partial rebuilding from the base of its windows upwards in 1882 by E. Christian.

The church comprises a nave with south aisle, chancel, and west tower, set out on a cruciform plan. The chancel is constructed of coursed blue lias and coursed squared and dressed sandstone on a sandstone plinth. The nave north wall, rebuilt in the 19th century, is of brick but retains its original sandstone buttresses. The tower displays lias in its lower stages and sandstone in the upper stage, surmounted by a sandstone spire. The roof is covered in red tile.

The chancel south wall contains one 2-light and one 3-light 19th-century window with trefoil-headed lights in rectangular surrounds, flanking a 19th-century plank priest's door in a flat-chamfered pointed surround. A 19th-century 3-light east window with tracery and hood featuring head stops occupies the east wall. The north wall of the chancel displays one 2-light window matching those on the south side and a pointed window with a quatrefoil.

The nave north wall, buttressed, contains two 2-light pointed windows with ogee-cusped trefoil heads and quatrefoils, flanking a blocked north doorway with a segmental-headed brick surround.

The tower is three-staged with diagonal buttresses. Its lower stages date from the 13th century and the upper stage from the 14th century, capped by a small spire. A 13th-century pointed 2-light window with cinquefoil-headed lights sits above a 19th-century plank door, with a west door housed within a shouldered surround. The second stage features single slit lights. 2-light belfry windows with sandstone louvres are set into the upper stage, with an embattled parapet and octagonal spire above.

The south aisle is supported by diagonal and clamp buttresses. It contains two 3-light 19th-century pointed windows with reticulated tracery and stopped hoods featuring carved stops, flanking a late 19th-century porch. An early plank door with cover strips connects the porch to the south aisle through a double-chamfered pointed-arched surround, surmounted by a 19th-century hoodmould with large 14th-century head stops.

Interior

The nave features a 4-bay arcade with octagonal piers bearing corbel heads, predominantly carved as men with hair curled in 14th-century fashion. A 14th-century Decorated piscina stands on the south wall of the south aisle. A double-chamfered 15th-century pointed arch leads from the nave to the tower.

The chancel arch is remodelled from the 12th century, stilted and of two orders with intersecting zig-zag moulding and a grotesque face forming the keystone, all beneath double billet moulding. Engaged jamb shafts with scalloped capitals, one bearing a shallowly carved face, frame the arch. The chancel itself features a 14th-century Decorated aumbry divided into two unequal compartments with pointed openings and blind tracery decorating the stone surround to the right of the altar. A cinquefoil-headed piscina with an ogee-arched hood is set in the south wall. A flat-chamfered pointed-headed surround frames the priest's doorway into the chancel.

The nave roof retains original tie beams beneath 19th-century boarding which replaced a former segmental ceiling. A 14th-century wagon roof covers the south aisle. The chancel has a 19th-century arch-braced roof. The nave and south aisle are laid with 19th-century red tile flooring, while the chancel features 19th-century red and brown tiling with decorative encaustic work, with a small patch of decorated medieval tiling preserved in the north-east corner.

Fittings and Monuments

A 13th or early 14th-century octagonal stone font on a circular base stands towards the west end of the south aisle. Late 19th-century wooden pews incorporate some 15th-century carved panels. The church contains a 19th-century oak pulpit and wooden lectern. Wooden stocks for three people, formerly positioned outside the church, are located in the south aisle. A drum bearing the Royal Arms of 1817 occupies the south-east corner of the aisle. A wooden chest with large dovetail joints and three locks stands at the west end of the nave. An early 19th-century organ is positioned beneath the eastern arch of the nave arcade, with a 19th-century harmonium in the chancel. A 19th-century communion rail with wrought-iron uprights, altar, and reredos complete the fittings. A fragment of an octagonal cross shaft is preserved at the east end of the south aisle.

The church contains numerous monuments and ledgers spanning several centuries. A 19th-century ledger lies right of the altar, alongside another to Margaret Buckle, died 1675, bearing a heraldic shield. Below the sanctuary step is a limestone ledger to Charles Dowdeswell, died 1775. An unusually large slatestone ledger at the chancel centre commemorates Sarah Buckle, died 1733, and other members of the Buckle family of the New House, with foliate decoration at the corners. Three eroded stone ledgers are set in the nave aisle, with six further ledgers in the floor of the south aisle, including those to Samuel Phelps, died 1707 (with Latin inscription), Sophia Hawkins, died 1807 (of the New House), Richard White of Hillend, died 1793 (finely decorated), Sarah White of Hillend, wife of Richard Biddle, died 1800, and other family members.

Wall monuments on the east wall of the south aisle include a white-on-grey marble monument to William White, died 1807, and a white marble monument with heraldic shield to Mary Helme (née Fisher), dated 1629. A fine slatestone monument to Thomas and Elizabeth White of Hillend, died 1771, features fluted decoration and a swan-necked pediment with gilded embellishment. Two white-on-grey marble monuments to members of the Buckle family stand to the right of the chancel arch, with three 19th-century marble monuments on the south wall of the chancel.

A benefaction inscription on the north wall of the nave records a donation of houses and land valued at £10, made in the reign of Edward III by an unknown donor for the charitable use of the church and poor. Four matching late 18th-century black-lettered benefaction boards of uniform design are set at the base of the tower.

The chancel east window and south aisle east window contain fragments of reused medieval window glass.