Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a parish church with a 13th-century chancel and 15th-century body, supplemented by various 19th and early 20th-century restorations. The walls are rendered except for the lower two stages of the tower, which are built in granite ashlar. Granite ashlar and volcanic stone are used for detailing throughout. The roof is slate with crested ridge tiles and granite coping stones with kneelers covering the nave, chancel and aisles.

The building consists of a nave with a narrower chancel, north and south aisles, and a west tower, with a single-storey south porch. The architectural style is Perpendicular except for the 13th-century chancel.

The west tower is unbuttressed and rises in three stages. The west doorway has jambs and arch each constructed from two massive granite blocks, with a pointed 4-centred arch decorated with roll and hollow moulding and ball stops, topped by a relieving arch. The window above is a probable late 19th-century replacement, also with a relieving arch. On the south side at the second stage is a very small slit window with an arched head. On the east side at this stage is a small single-light square-headed opening. At the third stage are round-headed 2-light belfry openings, except on the north side which has two single-light openings. A pentagonal stair turret projection on the north side of the tower has slit window openings and is battlemented at the top, rising above the tower's battlementation. The tower has a 4-sided pinnacle at each corner with ball finials. A stone lean-to, probably added in the 19th century, sits in the angle between tower and north aisle, partly enclosing the stair turret.

The north aisle has buttresses set back from the corners between windows. It features 3-light Perpendicular traceried windows with original jambs and hoodmoulds, though the tracery has been replaced in volcanic stone and the mullion of the west window in granite. Between the two most easterly windows on the north side is a semi-hexagonal rood stair turret projection with moulded granite capping.

The chancel has no plinth. On its north side is a plain lancet window with a 4-centred head. The east window was replaced in 1874 in volcanic stone in 3-light Perpendicular style. On the south side is a single-light window with a 4-centred head, and to its left is a priest door with a 4-centred arched granite surround, hollow chamfered.

The south aisle chapel has an east window with original moulded granite jambs and hoodmould, but the mullions have been replaced in granite and the tracery in volcanic stone in the 19th century. Buttresses are set back from the corners and placed between windows. The 3-light Perpendicular traceried windows on the south side include the most easterly window, which retains its original granite mullions, jambs and hoodmould with replaced tracery in volcanic stone. The two windows to its left retain only their original jambs.

The gabled porch appears to have been added later, as it partially overlaps a buttress of the south aisle, probably in the late 15th century. It has setback buttresses with the plinth continuing from the south aisle. The porch doorway features roll and hollow moulding to its granite jambs inside and out, with cushion stops on the outside and a pointed 4-centred arch.

The porch interior has a wagon roof with moulded ribs and wall plates with bosses, with additional bosses at either end of the collar purlin. A holy water stoup sits in the east wall. Stone seats flank the doorway with chamfered edges. The doorway into the church has a 2-centred granite arch with plain chamfer.

The nave has octagonal stone pillars and capitals to either aisle, with slight variation in the south aisle (squatter bases) compared to the north aisle (taller ones). Both arcades have 4-centred arches. A granite voussoir arch to the tower is supported on chamfered jambs with chamfered stones projecting inward from the arch springing on either side.

The nave roof was treated for infested woodwork in 1955 when it underwent extensive repairs; any bosses and moulded timbers were presumably destroyed, though the basic wagon roof structure survives with 20th-century boarding between the principals. The aisles have similar roof structures with moulded ribs, carved wall-plates and uncoloured bosses surviving, probably from the 15th century.

The chancel roof is particularly notable for its bosses, some purely decorative while others are pictorial or symbolic. Three depict the heads of a king and two queens, thought to represent King Edward I (1272-1307) and his queens, Margaret of France and Eleanor of Castille. Another shows three rabbits with their ears joining to form a triangle, possibly symbolic of the Trinity. The wall-plates to the chancel feature a series of carved decorative and symbolic medallions.

A plain piscina occupies the south wall of the chancel. The south chapel also has a piscina in its south wall with a trefoil-headed opening and carved spandrels. The north chapel contains an arched stone doorway to the rood stairs with a square-headed stone doorway at the top.

A fine late 15th-century timber screen runs across the nave and both aisles but has been much mutilated by restoration, principally during the work of Reverend W H Thornton between 1874 and 1876. Thornton recorded in 1899 that he had "blended into the church of North Bovey all sorts of spoils from all sorts of Churches". The screen is Pevsner Type A with Perpendicular lights and pointed tracery, incorporating at least three different types of panelling. The carving in the spandrels has been mutilated and considerably replaced with fragments from other screens. The chancel doorway has jambs decorated with carved figures, each standing under a crocketed canopy, similar to those at nearby Manaton Church. The cornice to the screen, mostly original, consists of alternate grapes and birds with running vine leaf motifs. The entire screen is coated with dark brown paint.

Parclose screens flank the chancel, each featuring square-headed tracery and doorways. One early carved bench end is attached to the west side of each doorway. Both screens are also coated with brown paint.

The altar in the south chapel comprises panels of Medieval panelling, possibly re-used and similar to the screen panelling, restored in its original colours.

Several early bench ends survive. One bears the initials W.P., possibly referring to William Pipard, an early Lord of the Manor. Another is more Renaissance in design, depicting the head of a man wearing a feathered hat, below which are two Tudor roses in circular plaques beneath a plant with a human face sprouting from the top.

The church was mainly re-seated in 1919 during restoration by Sir Charles Nicholson.

A granite octagonal font with carved panels on each face and a moulded pedestal is present. The carved oak pulpit dates from 1910 and replaces an 18th-century example.

Fragments of Medieval glass survive in the upper tracery of the north window to the north chapel, portraying the emblems of the four evangelists. The remainder of the window glass is from the mid to late 19th century and early 20th century, some commemorative in nature. The glass on the north side is frosted while on the south side it is clear.

A number of 17th-century granite tomb slabs are located in the aisles and nave, some decorative. The chancel contains granite memorial slabs to former rectors, including William Hambert (died 1670) and George Line (died 1684).