Church of St John

Church of St John

This is an Early English style parish church built of thinly coursed rock-faced stone with freestone dressings and quoins. It comprises a nave with south porch and a slightly narrower chancel with a higher eaves line. Both are roofed with tiles and have overhanging eaves behind coped gables on moulded kneelers.

A prominent stone spirelet rises at the east end of the nave, standing on a hipped freestone triple bellcote with pointed bell openings between ringed shafts and below a foliage cornice. The spirelet has cusped openings to each vertical facet and chevron and quatrefoil banding.

The nave and chancel have a battered base below a freestone band. The porch is set back from the west end. Its doorway has two orders of half shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and a pointed arch with hood mould and head stops. Above the doorway is a string course and niche with hood mould. The east and west walls have two-light square-headed windows with cusped lights. To the right of the porch the nave has a single and two pairs of cusped lights under hood moulds with head stops. A broad stepped buttress at the east end of the nave incorporates a plain pointed niche. The chancel has lofty proportions, accentuated by the falling ground level and the sills of the chancel windows at a higher level than in the nave. A string course runs below sill level. The south wall has four lancets with hood moulds, of which the right-hand one is shorter with a higher sill. The east wall comprises three stepped lancets with shafts and hood moulds. A single lancet on the north side has a hood mould and foliage stops. To the right of this window is a gabled vestry and organ chamber, which has a five-bay blind arcade incorporating two lancets in its north wall, and on the west side a stack with tall octagonal shaft above the buttress at the east end of the nave. The nave north wall has three pairs of cusped lights with hood moulds and foliage stops. The west wall has a five-light window with bar tracery, hood mould and head stops. A commemorative inscription appears on the plinth band.

The porch interior is ashlar faced. The pointed nave doorway has ringed nook shafts with stiff-leaf capitals, hood mould and head stops. Italian wrought iron gates in front of the nave door were installed in 1909, recorded on a commemorative inscription in the door jamb.

The main interior is also ashlar faced. Nave windows have shafted rere arches. The nave has a six-bay arched-brace roof with foliage bosses at the foot of each principal, arcading above the wall plate and stone foliage cornice. The deep chancel arch has arched panels and ringed shafts to east and west faces with stiff-leaf capitals and hood mould with head stops to the west side only. The chancel is more richly treated. Windows have rere arches with marble shafts and hood moulds. The roof, of four and a half bays, has pointed arched braces on corbels, wooden foliage cornice and diagonal boarding which, over the altar, is enriched with cusping. On the north side of the chancel is a two-centred arch dying into the imposts leading to the organ chamber. Of two north windows, one is blind. The east wall has a marble reredos with a blind arcade on short marble shafts of various hues, except immediately behind the altar where there is a ledge and a gold mosaic adorned with flowers and the legend 'Alleluia'. Above is a foliage frieze and foliage cornice below the sill of the east window. The south side has sedilia in a window embrasure, on the left side of which is a marble shaft supporting the corner of a piscina with projecting bowl and cusped arch. The chancel and sanctuary are laid with encaustic tiles.

The ornate round font has a freestone bowl with foliage friezes in relief and marble panels of various hues. A central and four detached marble shafts have foliage capitals and cusped arches. The wooden cover has radiating panels with quatrefoils. At the west end of the nave is a Gothic panelled screen to the vestry. The polygonal pulpit has a freestone base, front with stylised Gothic panels and oak-leaf frieze to the cornice. Behind the pulpit are iron railings with a brass handrail. The choir stalls have panelled fronts, the backs of the first tier are also panelled, and the stall ends have foliage. Communion rails are brass.

Several windows contain stained glass. The east window, probably of 1887 and by Burlison and Grylls, depicts the crucifixion. North and south chancel windows have angels playing musical instruments. The nave west window, possibly also by Burlison and Grylls, depicts New Testament scenes. The remaining windows have twentieth-century glass, mostly conservative in style. In the south wall of the nave, beginning at the east end, are Christ with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee (post 1913), Saints Christopher and Nicholas (post 1950) and Saint Stephen (post 1903). On the north side, beginning at the west end, are a deathbed scene (dated 1908), the Good Centurion and Saint Barnabus (post 1947) and the parable of the sheep and goats (post 1942). Porch windows are post 1929 and depict Saints Agnes and Cecilia in the west wall, Saints Margaret and Susanna in the east wall.