Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a Grade II* listed building located in North Milford, dating from the late 12th century, with additions and alterations from the 13th and 14th centuries, and extensive rebuilding of the exterior in 1860 for Lord Londesborough. It is constructed from magnesian limestone and sandstone, topped with a Welsh slate roof.

The church features a two-stage west tower, a three-bay aisled nave with a south porch, and a two-bay chancel with a north chapel. The tower includes a plinth, angle buttresses, and offsets, along with a south-west stair turret. It has lancet windows, and the second stage contains twin bell openings with Perpendicular tracery at the heads. Gargoyles adorn the angles, and the tower is topped with battlements. The south porch has a pointed arch with hollow moulding, leading to a studded door with decorative panels set in a double-chamfered, round-arched opening, which features a single order of nookshafts with waterleaf capitals under a hood-mould.

The aisles are supported by offset buttresses. The south aisle has three-light windows, one with reticulated tracery and another with curvilinear tracery, along with cusped lancets at the ends and a corbel table. The north aisle features two-light windows with geometrical and reticulated tracery, and a three-light window with reticulated tracery at the west end.

In the chancel, the south side has end buttresses with offsets and a Tudor-arched priest's door. There are two two-light windows with Y-tracery and a three-light straight-headed Perpendicular window. The north chapel includes a three-trefoiled-light, straight-headed window and a similar four-light window at the east end, with battlements above. The east end has a three-light window with reticulated tracery, which is a 19th-century insertion.

Inside, there is a double-chamfered pointed tower arch with imposts. The nave features cylindrical piers with moulded capitals and a pointed arcade. The chancel arch is triple-chamfered and pointed, also with imposts. The north chapel has a double-chamfered pointed arcade set in an octagonal pier. A 16th-century pierced screen and a Norman tub font are notable interior features. Monuments include an early 19th-century Italian carved marble tablet depicting the Adoration of the Magi, fragments of several pre-Conquest crosses, and pieces of stained glass from the 15th and 16th centuries.