Church Of St John The Baptist

ST62NE NORTH CHERITON CP

3/76 Church of St. John the Baptist

24.3.61

GV II*

Parish church. C14 origins, largely rebuilt in 1878. Local stone cut and squared with Ham stone dressings; plain clay tile roofs between stepped coped gables with finials. 3-cell plan of 2-bay Chancel and 3-bay Nave and North Aisle, with North East organ chamber/ vestry, South Porch and West Tower. Chancel has diagonal corner buttresses with offsets; East window of 3-lights with C15 tracery, set in hollowed recess, with pointed square stopped label; in South wall two 3-light ogee traceried flat headed windows. East window of organ chamber matches that to chancel; in North wall a small arched double door and nearby two C18 memorials set into wall. The nave has similar windows to those of chancel South wall, but not set in hollowed recesses; between them the South porch with plain moulded pointed outer arch and cambered arch inside. North aisle has two 3-light cambered arched windows with C19 tracery, and a matching window in the West wall. The tower in two stages of which at least the lower is of C15 or earlier; diagonal corner buttresses with offsets to full height; string courses, the upper with gargoyles, and crenellated parapet with corner pinnacles; stepped pitched roof stair turret on North East corner : stage 1 plain except for 2 small single-light cusped-head windows in the West wall; similar window in West wall stage 2, but C15 style 2-light windows in deep hollowed recesses to North and East walls, and a plainer 2-light window without recess or label on South side. Inside, the wide, pointed chancel arch may be C15, with a squint on the South side, otherwise the chancel is totally C19, with boarded barrel vault ceiling and tooled ashlar walls. Nave arcade in a fussy C16 style detail; the nave and aisle otherwise totally C19. The chancel screen incorporates part of a screen formerly in Pilton Church (possibly 1498-1508); timber panelled pulpit with top frieze of vine foliage dated 1633; font a plain tub, possibly C12, with Jacobean cover; some C20 stained glass in Aisle and nave windows, including South East window of 1959/61 by Easton. (Pevsner N, Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958).

Listing NGR: ST6872625826