Church Of St John The Evangelist

The Church of St John the Evangelist is a church built between 1869 and 1870 by Henry Woodyer of Guildford. It is constructed of coursed squared limestone with ridge tile roofs. The church comprises a chancel, vestry, organ chamber, nave, north aisle, and a west tower.

The three-bay chancel has an east window with three stepped lancets recessed in a chamfered stone surround with a hood mould and ornamental miniature buttresses flanking the central light. There are lancet windows to the south. The vestry has a lancet window to the east and a plank door. The organ chamber contains two lancets to the north, with a panel carved with a sacred monogram and a stone-coped gable with kneelers. The north aisle features lancet windows, the northernmost with a continuous equilateral arched hood mould and foliage label stops. The nave has two-light windows to the south, featuring plate tracery and oculus in the heads. A double roll-moulded south door is located in a south porch with a chamfered doorway, an inner rounded trefoil arch on shafts with moulded capitals, three small lancets to the east and west and a stone-coped gable with kneelers.

The two-stage west tower has a chamfered west door with a hood mould, and a small lancet window above. A stair turret with a stone roof rises from the south-east angle, and diagonal buttresses are set to the west angles. There are two-light bell openings with plate tracery, pointed trefoil heads to the right, supported by shafts with moulded capitals, quatrefoils in the heads, and hood moulds. The tower is topped by a broach spire with a tier of lucarnes. Chamfered plinths and stone eaves are present on the nave and aisle.

The interior of the chancel includes an encaustic tiled sanctuary and a fine timber communion rail with small pointed trefoil arches. The nave has an arch-braced collar-truss roof and a four-bay north arcade with octagonal piers, broach stop bases, shouldered chamfered arches, outer chamfered arches on corbels, and hood moulds. The nave also features an arch-braced collar-truss roof. The furnishings are a complete set of pitch pine. Other features include a set of Royal Arms dated 1710 (painted on canvas and stored in the tower) and an early 19th-century charity board. Stained glass windows by Morris & Co. date from 1890. The west tower of the previous church was destroyed by a strong gale on February 1st, 1869. The earlier church, largely of 13th-century date, was in such a state of disrepair that complete rebuilding was necessary. A photograph of the old church following the disaster is held in the National Monuments Record.