Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a church constructed between 1881 and 1882, designed by Paley and Austin. It is built of dressed stone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. The church includes a nave with a north aisle and a south-west tower, a chancel with a north organ loft and a vestry.

The tower features a stair turret clasping the south-west angle, a diagonal buttress to the south-east, two dripcourses, and two-light traceried bell openings with timber louvres. The top cornice supports an embattled parapet with a higher turret, topped with a pyramidal roof and a weathervane bearing the date 1881. The south entrance has continuous mouldings and a double-cusped light above the door. The west side has a straight-headed, two-light, hollow-chamfered window with a double-cusped light above. The two-bay nave has a west, two-light, straight-headed, single-chamfered mullioned window with cusping, flanked by buttresses. The south elevation features straight-headed windows of three and two lights with uncusped tracery above small basement lights, with a weathered buttress to the east end. The north aisle, under a swept catslide roof, has straight-headed windows of two and three lights with three-centred heads. The west end has a single-chamfered, double-cusped light.

The chancel has a weathered base, a high three-light east window with a moulded arch and hood, and a gable cross. The south elevation has a three-light straight-headed window with cusped tracery and a buttress to the north. The organ loft and vestry, under an asymmetrical gable, have two ogee-headed lights to the east over a basement entrance. The north side steps to the entrance have a coped parapet, with a sunk ogee over the entrance and a two-light straight-headed window with cusping.

Inside, the tower porch has a timber and glass screen dated 1924. The nave has a canted ceiling with two collar and tie beam trusses and tracery panels. A four-bay arcade features piers with moulded bases, capitals and arches. The font has chamfered angles and clustered shafts. The west window contains stained glass dated 1880, and the north window features a crucifixion panel of uncertain date. An arch between the aisle and organ loft has an open traceried screen. The chancel arch features moulded responds and an open screen with a tracery cornice and bratishing, similar to the screen in the organ loft. The timber lectern, pulpit and stalls are adorned with blind and open tracery. The altar rail has turned balusters and tracery, and the altar is of a similar design. The sedilia have heads with sunk cusped arches. The vestry incorporates an angle fireplace and a small recess. Reused stones from an earlier church on site include one dated 1616 and another, a key, dated 1757.