Church of St John the Baptist is a Grade II* listed building in the Peak District National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 21 April 1967. A Victorian Church.
Church of St John the Baptist
- WRENN ID
- salt-roof-rye
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Peak District National Park
- Constituency
- High Peak MP: Jon Pearce (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 21 April 1967
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Victorian
- Address
- Church of St John the Baptist, Main Road, Bamford, High Peak
- OS grid reference
- SK 207 833
- Coordinates
- 53.34689, -1.68962
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St John the Baptist, built between 1856 and 1860 by William Butterfield, is a notable church constructed from coursed squared gritstone with ashlar dressings and an ashlar spire. It features a Welsh slate roof with stone coped gables and includes a nave with a north aisle, chancel, west narthex, and a northwest steeple.
The tower is unbuttressed and has two unequal stages. The ground stage contains a west door with two chamfered orders that die into the imposts, functioning as a porch. Shallow, gableted buttresses at the corners rise only about ten feet. The bell stage features three-light cusped bell openings set within recessed panels, with recessed quatrefoil motifs at the angles. The pyramid spire rises directly from the edges of the tower and includes one tier of lucarnes.
The lean-to narthex has lancet windows with Caernarvon arches, and above it is a rose window with geometrical tracery set in a pointed arch, flanked by small rectangular openings. The south side has windows with two and three lights featuring unusual geometrical tracery, while the north side has groups of trefoiled lancets.
Inside, the church has a four-bay north arcade with alternating circular and octagonal piers, supported by bold single chamfered arches. The canted roof includes tie beams, is boarded above, and features pairs of quatrefoils. Windbraces are also present. The pulpit has a stone base with a wooden upper part, and there is a wood and wrought iron communion rail along with low, simple pews. A tapering circular font with arcading is located within. All fittings were designed by Butterfield. The stained glass in the east window, created in 1860, is by Preedy, and the southwestern-most window and the west rose window are likely also by him. Other windows contain non-pictorial glass.
Local climate
Church of St John the Baptist sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,010 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 81% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 71% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 47 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 89% of listed buildings. Of these, 29 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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