Church of St John

The Church of St John is a parish church designed in the thin Gothic style, a style often associated with churches funded by the Parliamentary Commission. It dates to the 19th century and comprises a nave, a west porch, transepts, and a short chancel with a separately articulated sanctuary. The exterior is constructed of roughly coursed and squared rubble stone, featuring continuous sill bands, a moulded stone eaves cornice, gabletted pilaster-buttresses that emphasise the angles, and pinnacles marking the principal angles of the west wall, transept gables, and the junction of the chancel and sanctuary. The roof is of shallow pitch, covered in slate with coped gables. A western bellcote projects from the west wall, featuring a saddle-back roof and louvred openings. Y-traceried windows are found throughout, with a five-light intersecting traceried east window in the sanctuary. A gabled west porch has lancet windows flanking a pointed-arched doorway, and a smaller gabled porch is set against the south transept gable, with an arched doorway between buttresses.

The church originally followed a simple "preaching box" plan, with galleries on the west side and in the transepts. The wide nave has a shallow-pitched roof. The interior is largely plain, though it is enhanced by later additions. A fine traceried chancel screen, dating to 1918, features paired panels and a vine-scroll frieze. A similar panelled screen is present in the north transept, accompanied by a panelled wood reredos and an encaustic tiled floor. A Cefn stone pulpit is also present. The most notable feature is the richly coloured tilework in the sanctuary, comprising encaustic tiled panels with scrollwork detail alternating with and forming the spandrels to arched panels containing embossed lilies, vines and other motifs. A trailwork frieze and embossed fleurons adorn the cornice. Behind the altar, a stepped tilework reredos features a central arched panel with a lily motif, flanked by square panels bearing IHS emblems. An inscription panel records that the tilework is a memorial to J C Edwards, who assisted in the church's restoration in 1888. It notes the reredos was made and presented by members of this church and the church of Saint Paul, Acrefair, and constructed at the Trefynant Tileworks in July 1906. An encaustic tiled floor extends throughout the chancel, and the east window contains stained glass dated 1867, depicting The Ascension, by Done and Davies of Carlisle. A stained glass window in the north window commemorates Queen Victoria, dating to 1902. Additional fittings include two Commandment boards from 1885, commemorating the first vicar, and a pulpit dated 1914.