Church Of St John

Parish church of the late 13th to mid-14th centuries, with a 15th-century south porch and 15th-16th century clerestory, and heavily restored in 1911. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with lead roofs and a tiled porch. The west tower, set between the aisles, has three stages, angle buttresses to the west corners, a battlemented parapet, and paired pointed lights with Tudor hoodmoulds to the bell chamber. A single light and a carved stone sundial dated 1828 are also on the south side. The west side features a heavily restored 14th-century doorway with a moulded arch on triple shafts, and a two-light traceried window with canopied niches in the jambs, an arched niche above. The nave has a moulded parapet and a three-bay clerestory of two-light cusped windows. The north aisle has traceried windows in the east bays, and a three-light uncusped window to the north of the west bay with a segmental zig-zag moulding over, alongside a moulded doorway. The south aisle is more regular, with three-light cusped windows, two in the east bays with flat heads, one with a four-centred head; an altered and blocked round window is located to the east. A brick buttress is found between the east windows. A moulded south doorway has a hoodmould with carved head stops and a cusped niche above. The south porch is dated 1657 on a tablet and has a wide chamfered arch on semi-octagonal piers with carved heads to the stops and apex of the hoodmould. The chancel has an altered plain parapet and three bays of traceried windows, two-light to the north and south, and three-light to the east. Inside, the tower has triple chamfered arches to the nave and aisles; the nave arch is taller and has the inner order continued down the jambs. The nave has four-bay arcades of double chamfered arches, those to the south on circular piers, those to the north on octagonal piers, all with moulded capitals and bases. A cusped ogee niche is located to the right of the chancel arch, and a shallow niche with a pointed head is found in the north-east pier. The nave and aisle roofs are late 15th to 16th century with moulded cross beams. A double chamfered chancel arch features, the inner order on semi-octagonal piers. The chancel contains a fine 14th-century piscina and sedilia with moulded arches on triple shafts; the piscina arch is pointed and cusped, the sedilia arch segmental. Notable fittings include choir stalls with some early 16th-century ends with poppyheads initialled R.H., a similar pew in the nave, old tiles in the chancel, an early 17th-century pulpit, a font dated 1661 with a small carved marble basin on a wooden baluster and a fine wrought iron hoist for its cover, a 17th-century poor box, and an early 19th-century box pew belonging to the Westcar family. A late 15th-century wall painting exists in the north aisle. Monuments include two marble tablets in the chancel with hands pointing downwards—one to Ann Gaderen 1669 and the other to Bennett and Martha Gaudrey 1660 and 1656—and a marble monument to John Westcar 1833, by John Gibson, with a relief of a gentleman standing in front of a bull and some sheep. Three small brass inscription tablets from 1699-1707 are also located in the nave.