Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a parish church of Norman origin, substantially altered and expanded over several centuries. The building is constructed of squared and coursed blue lias stone with Ham stone dressings and slate roofs with coped verges.

The church comprises a west tower, a three-and-a-half bay nave with north and south aisles, a north chapel, south vestry with organ bay, and chancel. The tower dates to around 1500 and is the most prominent feature, rising in three stages and crenellated with crocketed pinnacles. The parapet is pierced with quatrefoils and arcades in the merlons, and the tower has gargoyles and corbelled-out pinnacles rising from diagonal buttresses. The bell openings are of three lights with Somerset tracery. The four-light west window is set on the lintel of a Tudor-arch-head doorway with decorated spandrels and a 19th-century door. A north-east stair turret is present, and a three-light window lights the south aisle on the west front.

A single-storey gabled porch is dated 1530, with three-light windows flanking it. The inner doorway is a 19th-century Tudor arch, while the original late medieval door, much restored, also remains. The transept (vestry) is diagonally buttressed with a three-light window in the gable end and a door on the east front. A large three-light south window to the chancel has decorated spandrels. The chancel has a three-light east window with diagonal buttresses, a two-light window on the north wall, and a three-light window at the east end of the north aisle, said to have been reset from the original east end position. The north front has four three-light windows with stepped buttresses between them, and a blocked moulded Tudor-arch opening. Some pieces of quatrefoil-decorated panels, either from the tower or from the crenellated parapet, have been inserted in the plinth.

The church was substantially altered in the 19th century. A north aisle chapel was added in 1825, and the south aisle and chapel in 1834. In 1867, the church was comprehensively restored under Sir George Gilbert Scott, with the chancel arch rebuilt further east and end bays added to the north and south aisles. An earlier addition was made by Richard Carver.

The interior is rendered. The nave has a Perpendicular arcade with leaf-band capitals. The south arcade is 19th-century coped. A 19th-century pointed arch occupies the south-east corner, while a narrow arch with respond stands in the north-east. The chancel wall is set at an angle (squint) to the nave and connected by a 19th-century Perpendicular-style arch. The tower arch is Perpendicular. The roofs are 19th-century work: the chancel has an open wagon roof, the nave an arch-braced roof, both with stencilled decoration and panelled shallow-pitch aisle roofs.

Many windows retain interior features of note. The south aisle windows have panelled jambs, as do the east and west windows of the north aisle. The north front window has decorated spandrels. Remains of a two-light window in the north wall of the chancel now light the organ bay. A 19th-century piscina and aumbry are present, along with a stone reredos and tiles in the sanctuary.

The organ dates to 1875. Late medieval bench ends survive, with the majority carved around 1840 by Samuel Blackmore. The 19th-century stained glass includes a south aisle window commemorating Ellen Raban (died 1854), signed by A Gibbs of Bedford Square, London. A south chancel window is dedicated to Colonel Chard, VC, the hero of Rorke's Drift, who died in 1897 at The Close, Hatch Beauchamp. His brother was Rector of St John's Church. Remains of medieval stained glass survive in the upper lights of a west window in the north wall of the north aisle.

Early 19th-century panelling forms a vestry at the west end of the north aisle. A panelled screen to the tower arch dates to 1904. Two slate slabs near the chancel steps commemorate burials, including one to John Towning (died 1721); another is illegible. A large oil painting of the Entombment hangs in the chancel.

The chancel arch, which was demolished in 1867, is recorded as having been Norman in date.