Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a Grade I listed church of major importance for illustrating the development of Decorated and Perpendicular style architecture in Derbyshire. The building dates to the 14th century and was comprehensively restored in 1873 by J D Sedding.

The church is constructed of coursed gritstone with ashlar dressings and lead-covered pitched roofs. It comprises a west tower, south porch, north and south aisles and transepts, a nave with clerestory, chancel, and sacristy.

The two-stage west tower features angle buttresses to the first stage, a bell stage with embattled parapet, and octagonal corner towers with crocketed pinnacles. Between the towers, crocketed pinnacles rise from the parapet. The bell stage contains coupled pointed arched openings with transomed Y-tracery beneath hoodmoulds. A moulded string course runs above the window heads, surmounted by the parapet. A tall Perpendicular 5-light west window with panel tracery sits above the west door, which has a pointed arched head. Small rectangular lights and a clock light the first stage. A 19th-century bellcote rises above the chancel arch.

The two-storey south porch has diagonal stepped buttresses, a pointed arched doorway with hoodmould, and an embattled parapet above a moulded string course. Narrow lancets light the first floor.

The north and south aisles of four bays rise from a triple-stepped plinth that continues around the building. Aisle windows of three lights feature curvilinear tracery with moulded string course and embattled parapet above. Stepped buttresses delineate each bay. Three-light clerestory windows comprise two lights with ogee heads supporting a quatrefoil, beneath a hoodmould, with string course and embattled parapet above.

The north and south transepts, each of two bays, have stepped diagonal buttresses and pinnacles. The parapets feature embattled centres behind which rise the coped gables. Tall 5-light windows with hoodmoulds and carved stops, plus side wall windows of three lights, all display bold curvilinear tracery.

The four-bay chancel has tall straight-headed 3-light windows, nearly Perpendicular, but with quatrefoils on trefoils linking the mullions. These post-date the flowing tracery of the transepts but appear contemporary with the curvilinear tracery of the tall east window. Stepped buttresses define the chancel bays, those on the south wall featuring pinnacles and blind tracery to the buttress faces. An almost semicircular-headed priests' doorway with a planked and studded door opens to the south wall, and niches appear in the south transept buttresses. A pointed arched doorway with a panelled oak door and hoodmould opens to the north aisle.

Interior

The tall Perpendicular tower arch features ribbed vaulting below the bell chamber. A tower screen by J Oldred Scott dates to 1904. Ribbed vaulting covers the south porch. A medieval font has an octagonal bowl with fluted stem on a circular base, decorated with quatrefoil, chalice, shield and book devices.

The four-bay nave has arches rising almost to the clerestory. Nave piers of unusual quatrefoil section match the moulding of the chancel arch imposts. The transept arches are wider than the nave arches.

The north transept contains east wall niches and two defaced effigies of unknown females from the 12th and 13th centuries, together with surviving former chancel stalls featuring misericords. An organ by Foster & Andrews of Hull was installed in 1895.

The south transept features a piscina to the east wall with an ogee head and quatrefoils above, and an ogee-headed aumbry to the south wall. Stone effigies of Sir Thurstan De Bower (died 1423) and his lady lie on a chest tomb, restored in 1873. Hatchments to the Meverill and Statham families and an aedicule wall monument to Thomas Statham hang between the windows.

King-post roof trusses cover the nave and transepts. Arched braces run from wall posts to tie-beam soffits and from tie beam to king post, giving an ogee form. Cusped curved braces rise from principal rafters to purlin soffits, with arch braces from king posts supporting the ridge.

The chancel arch carries a 14th-century timber screen and gates with a canopy of 1883. Evidence of steps to a former rood loft appears on the chancel arch wall's west face, and an earlier roof line marks the east face. A stone reredos with an embattled parapet encloses the sacristy at the east end, with canopied niches featuring crockets. Canopied niches on the east wall flank a Tree of Jesse east window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne (1875).

An ogee-headed piscina and triple sedilia with ogee heads and quatrefoils to the spandrels ornament the south wall. Double-blind ogee arches appear on the north wall.

Brasses commemorate Sir John Foljamb (died 1383, restored) and Bishop Robert Purseglove (died 1579, depicted in pre-Reformation vestments). A chest tomb to Sir Sampson Maverill (died 1462) was restored in 1876.