Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist, Achurch

This is a church of early and late 13th-century date, substantially restored and enlarged around 1862 by the architect William Slater. It is built in squared coursed limestone with ashlar tower and spire, and features Collyweston slate and lead roofs.

The church comprises an aisled nave, chancel, transepts, south porch, north vestry, and west tower. The south elevation of the chancel displays a 3-window range of 2-light windows. The rightmost window is late 13th-century with a quatrefoil circle and carved label stops; the other two are largely 19th-century. A priest door sits to the left of centre, with single-stage buttresses and gablets to the right of centre and far right. A corbel table supports the 19th-century gutter beneath a steeply gabled roof with ashlar gable parapets and finial. The 5-light east window has 19th-century tracery with trefoils, flanked by buttresses with gablets decorated with Y-tracery. The north elevation of the chancel contains a single 19th-century 2-light window with flanking buttresses. The south elevation of the nave comprises three bays with a 2-window range of 19th-century 2-light windows, a 19th-century corbel table, gutter, and steeply gabled roof with ashlar parapets and finial. A 19th-century gabled porch projects from the left bay, its outer doorway chamfered and moulded with corbelled responds and short shafts, the inner doorway double-chamfered. The south transept breaks forward, displaying a late 13th-century 2-light window with quatrefoil circle and elongated trefoils, and a 19th-century 2-light east window with medieval label stops. The north aisle is a 19th-century addition of three bays with 2-light windows, single-stage buttresses between, a lean-to lead roof with plain ashlar parapet, and corbel table. The north transept contains a 2-light window and is flanked by a 19th-century organ chamber and vestry with 2-light windows to north and east.

The west tower rises in three stages with a plinth. Two-stage angle buttresses sit at the south-west corner of the lower two stages, and a polygonal stair turret projects from the north-west corner. The early 13th-century west door has two orders of shafts and a roll-moulded arch, with two lancet windows above. The second stage displays quatrefoil circles on its north and south faces. The bell-chamber openings of the upper stage are 2-light with Y-tracery, accompanied by trefoil circles and linked by hood mould and string course. A corbel table with carved heads linked by trefoil arcading supports the broach spire, which rises in two tiers of lucarnes.

Interior

The 3-bay nave arcade comprises 19th-century double-chamfered arches with quatrefoil piers and foliated capitals. A similar double-chamfered arch connects the north aisle to the transept. The 13th-century chancel arch is double-chamfered, with similar arches to the transepts having corbelled responds. An early 13th-century stiff-leaf capital adorns the north-east respond. The triple-chamfered tower arch is similar. The roof structures are 19th-century. A low cill forming sedilia marks the window to the right of the altar. The font is plain and octagonal. Furnishings are 19th-century. A trefoil-headed piscina stands in the north transept. Stained glass of 19th-century date appears in the east window, south window of the chancel, and north transept window.

Monuments and Family History

The church contains a notable collection of monuments, primarily to the Powys family of Lilford Hall. Arthur Elmes, who died 1565, is commemorated by an oval wreathed tablet in the tower with a cherub above and skull below. Three additional partially legible tablets, dating to the 17th and early 18th centuries, stand in the tower, two with armorial devices. Sir Thomas Powys died 1719; his monument in the south transept is said to have been reset from Lilford Church and is attributed to Robert Hartshorne. It is a large standing monument with detached Corinthian columns, open segmental pediment, putti and drapery falling over a reclining figure, with flanking figures of Truth and Justice. Charles and Henry Powys died 1804 and 1812; their inscribed tablet on the west wall of the south transept bears military still-life below. Henrietta Maria Powys died 1820, commemorated by an inscribed tablet on the east wall of the north transept with still-life of books and bowls. Thomas Powys, second Lord Lilford, died 1825, with an inscribed tablet alongside. Three similar 19th-century tablets on the east wall of the south transept have pediments over. Various 18th-century inscribed floor tablets to the Powys family appear in the south transept, with mid-19th-century brass inscribed tablets to the Powys family in the transepts and chancel. Thomas Atherton Powys died 1882 and is remembered by a marble medallion with profile to the right of the altar.

Robert Browne (1550–1630), who served as Rector of Achurch, formed the first Independent Congregation, establishing an important link to the early Nonconformist movement.