Church Of St John Baptist

The Church of St John Baptist, Lower Holker, was built between 1897 and 1900 to the designs of Austin and Paley. It is a building of group value. Constructed of dressed stone with ashlar dressings and stone slate roofs, with a lead roof to the apse, the church comprises a nave with aisles, a west tower, a chancel with a north chapel and a south organ loft, and a round apse with a vestry underneath.

The three-stage saddleback tower has a moulded base, setback buttresses, two sill courses, a corbelled coped parapet, and east and west gables with fishscale banding. Its west face features paired lancet windows to the first stage, a round-headed lancet with zig-zag moulding above, and paired louvred bell openings. A south gabled porch has open quatrefoils over a moulded arch, while a north side features a gabled stair turret and a shallow porch with a shouldered lintel and two orders of entrance. Paired bell openings are present to the east, along with a four-faced clock. The four-bay nave has a three-bay lean-to to the aisles, with coped gables and parapets.

The west bay of the nave has lancets with sill and impost bands. The clerestory contains two lights to each bay above the aisles. The aisles are clasped by buttresses and have lancet windows, paired to the west and east bays. The organ loft is gabled with large buttresses, bearing a lancet above the weathering. It has two windows of two lights to the basement. A gabled projection to the east has small lancets and an entrance with a shouldered lintel. The chancel has a coped gable with a cross and round stack, a corbelled parapet and a round apse, which incorporates flat buttresses, three basement lights in arched recesses, and lancets on a sill course. The apse also features a north lancet over a basement window and two quatrefoil windows over a lean-to chapel, which has a large gabled buttress to the north and paired lancets to the north and a single lancet to the east.

Inside, the nave has a crown post roof with arch braces, and three-bay arcades with round and keeled quatrefoil piers, west corbels and east responds. The tower arch has keeled responds, and east of this is a double chamfered outer arch. The tower ceiling is characterized by plain joists. The font stands on two round steps with a basin on a squat pier and six outer shafts leading to the rim. Painted 18th-century Creed and Commandment boards, along with George III royal arms from the previous church built in 1777, are present in the nave, alongside pews with simple detailing and turned balusters to fronts and backs, and a set of corporation insignia including a sword, staff and halberd. The chancel arch has paired corbelled shafts; arches lead to the chapel and organ loft. The organ has a good case, and is accompanied by stalls and altar rails of similar quality. The chancel includes trefoil-headed sedilia and a recess with a shelf. The apse has a moulded arch, a rib vault on wall shafts, and incorporates stained glass believed to be from the 1777 church.