Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church with origins in the 14th century, largely rebuilt in the 19th century. It is constructed of local stone with squared blocks and dressings of Ham stone, with plain clay tile roofs behind stepped coped gables with finials. The church has a 3-cell plan, comprising a 2-bay chancel, a 3-bay nave and north aisle, a northeast organ chamber/vestry, a south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel features diagonal corner buttresses with offsets, and an east window of three lights with 15th-century tracery set in a hollowed recess, with a pointed, square stopped label. Two 3-light, ogee traceried, flat-headed windows are also in the south wall. The east window of the organ chamber matches the chancel east window, and the north wall includes a small arched double door and two 18th-century memorials set into the wall. The nave has similar windows to those in the chancel's south wall, but without hollowed recesses. The south porch has a plain moulded pointed outer arch and a cambered arch inside. The north aisle has two 3-light, cambered arched windows with 19th-century tracery, and a matching window in the west wall.

The two-stage west tower has a lower stage that likely dates from the 15th or earlier century. It has diagonal corner buttresses with offsets, string courses, the upper string with gargoyles, and a crenellated parapet with corner pinnacles. A stepped pitched roof stair turret is on the northeast corner. Stage 1 is plain, except for two small, single-light, cusped-head windows in the west wall. There is a similar window in the west wall of stage 2, and 2-light windows in a 15th-century style, set in deep hollowed recesses on the north and east walls. A plainer 2-light window without recess or label is on the south side.

Inside, the wide, pointed chancel arch may be of the 15th century, with a squint on the south side. The chancel is entirely 19th century, with a boarded barrel vault ceiling and tooled ashlar walls. The nave arcade has fussy 16th-century detailing; the nave and aisle are otherwise 19th century. A chancel screen incorporates elements of a screen formerly in Pilton Church (possibly dating from 1498–1508). A timber-panelled pulpit has a top frieze with vine foliage dated 1633. The font is a plain tub, possibly of the 12th century, with a Jacobean cover. There is some 20th-century stained glass in the aisle and nave windows, including a south-east window dated 1959/61 by Easton.