Church Of St John

Church of St John

Parish church with 12th-century origins. The chancel, north chapel, and tower were added in the 14th century. The south aisle dates from 1842, was extended in 1880 to house the organ, and was restored and reseated in 1887.

The church is built of coursed limestone rubble with ironstone ashlar dressings. The nave and aisle roofs are not visible, probably of lead. The chancel and porch roofs are of Collyweston stone slates.

The building consists of an aisled nave with north and south porches, a chancel with north chapel, and a west tower. The tower has two stages. The tall lower stage features ironstone bands and diagonal buttresses with three set-offs. It has a blocked west doorway with depressed ogee lintel and lancets to the west and south. The bell stage contains two-light Decorated windows with transom and quatrefoiled heads, a blind traceried frieze, and a castellated parapet on moulded eaves. Gargoyles project at the angles.

The nave has a parapet and three clerestorey windows on each side, each consisting of spherical triangles flanking a traceried circle. The north windows are original; the south windows date from the 19th century. The north aisle and north chapel have buttresses, cill bands, and parapet with head spouts. The chapel also has a plinth, a three-light square-headed window with hood mould, and a similar two-light window with head stops to the hood mould. The north aisle has similar two-light windows either side of a 19th-century porch. The east end of the north chapel has a 19th-century doorway with lancet over. The chancel has a coped gable with finial and a three-light east window with intersecting tracery. The south side of the chancel has a renewed two-light square-headed window with a rectangular panel above flanked by carved heads, possibly reused, and incorporating a diamond-shaped stone inscribed IL 1622. The east end of the south aisle has a similar renewed two-light window. The south face of the aisle has four two-light 19th-century Decorated style windows, one to the left of the porch and three to the right. The 19th-century porch has diagonal buttresses, a parapet gable, and an arched entry with head stops to the hood mould. The door consists of overlapping studded boards.

Interior: The nave has a three-bay arcade on both sides. The north arcade consists of two wide round arches of two orders carried on a cylindrical pier and triple responds with stiff-leaf capitals, and a small, simpler round arch of ironstone carried on corbels at the west end, possibly reused. A segmental-headed recess in the north aisle contains a carved head. A doorway with depressed ogee head on the roof line requires a large buttress in the north aisle to support the chancel arch, which has two chamfered orders. The south arcade, built in 1842 by Reverend Sir George Stamp Robinson as a memorial to two of his children, imitates the details of the north arcade. The nave roof has ovolo-moulded tie beams (repaired), purlins, and ridge-piece, with rafters renewed. The north aisle roof retains some chamfered beams, but the south aisle and chancel roofs are 19th-century. The chancel has a two-bay north arcade carried on an octagonal pier and semi-circular responds, with a 19th-century opening to the south featuring similar details. A low doorway at the east end leads to the north chapel, now used as a vestry, which contains an oval wall monument to Jane Coo, d. 1656, a slate tablet in a richly-carved stone surround. The east window contains reused medieval and later glass of diverse origins, and at the top, Victorian glass depicting St Andrew and St John, with an inscription commemorating the union of the benefices of the two Cranford churches. The church retains the lower part of a Jacobean screen, 16th-century Flemish panels carved with Biblical scenes reset in a 19th-century pulpit, and a plain octagonal font.