Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church dating from the 14th century, with a 15th-century west tower. The main body of the church was re-roofed and repaired following a fire in 1981. It is constructed of flint, brick, and limestone with limestone dressings and has pantiled roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel incorporating a former south aisle, a north porch, and a vestry. The west tower is square, with staged angle buttresses and a base course of flushwork panels featuring traceried heads. It has a west door with a square label mould and traceried spandrels, a 3-light Perpendicular west window with a hood mould on head stops, square traceried sound holes, 3-light bell openings, and a polygonal stair turret on the south side. A south doorway to the nave is now blocked. The south nave wall contains double lancet windows between the buttresses, and the chancel south wall has two 2-light windows dating from around 1300 with Y-tracery. A priest's door, with headstops to its hood mould, sits between these windows. A massive raking brick buttress is located at the south-east corner. The east gable has a double-pitch and the south chancel aisle features a triple stepped lancet window with a continuous hood mould and head stops. The chancel has a 4-light east window with intersecting tracery, and the vestry has a 2-light Y-tracery window. The north side displays early brickwork, some in a herringbone pattern within the flint, with brick quoins at the north-east corner of the nave. A 2-light Decorated window is set in the north chancel wall, and three 2-light Y-tracery windows are in the north nave wall, with the easternmost set in a reduced opening. The north porch has a drip mould with head-stops and a blocked niche in the gable. Staged diagonal buttresses support the north gable wall. The north doorway has a hood mould with headstops and stooling for a finial.

The interior was re-ordered and re-furnished following the 1981 fire; plastered ceilings now cover the new roof structures. The chancel arch and the south chapel arch open into the nave. The chancel arch has a double plain chamfer, supported by corbelled polygonal responds with cusped ogee arcading. The C14 chancel south arcade to the chapel has two bays with an octagonal pier and double chamfered arches; a taller bay was added to the east around 1500, featuring polygonal responds and castellated abaci. Cusped recesses are found in the north chancel wall, and the vestry door has an ogee headed arch on head stops. Two fine 16th-century chest tombs are located in the south chapel, one with an indecipherable inscription, and the other commemorating Henry Berney, who died in 1584. The tomb-chest features Tuscan colonnettes, a four-centred arched recess above flanked by Ionic columns with kneeling figures in relief, and a scrolled ogee arch containing arms.