Church of Saint John the Baptist

Church of Saint John the Baptist, now used as a hall. Built in Pennant sandstone, constructed in coursed squared rubble with sandstone ashlar and tooled dressings, under a slate roof with coped shouldered gables and raised plinth.

The building comprises a nave with a short lower chancel and a large north transept of equal height to the nave. The north transept contains the principal entrance facade and features a bellcote. The north transept front is distinguished by octagonal angle turrets with two moulded courses positioned at the level of the gable string ends and gable coping, topped with finials bearing coved battlemented caps. The centre of this facade has a coped gable with a lower string course following the coping line, two long chamfered lancet windows, and a sandstone ashlar centrepiece containing the bellcote. This centrepiece is broadest at its base, which projects slightly further and features a chamfered pointed doorway with a twentieth-century panelled door. Above this, the design steps inward with chamfered coping to a narrower ashlar strip containing a chamfered lancet, with chamfered angles. It steps in again at the top of the gable stringcourse to a narrow section with a moulded string beneath a gabled bellcote. The bellcote opening is cusped and faces both front and back, with narrow side openings and a stone gabled top.

The gable string course runs along the sides of the transept and along the north sides of the nave and chancel, then follows the gable line at the west and east ends. The transept has one lancet on each side, while the nave has one lancet to each side of the transept and stepped diagonal corner buttresses. The chancel is lit by one very small lancet on the north and south, a stepped triple lancet on the east with hoodmoulds, and a small vent in the apex beneath the string course. The south wall of the nave has four large lancets with buttresses between them and diagonal buttresses at the corners. A central pointed arched recess on the east wall was formerly used for a memorial slab to the Miers family, originally protected by cast-iron railings. The west end features a stringcourse following the gable coping, a tall two-light pointed window with a quatrefoil in the head, diagonal angle buttresses, and a ground floor lean-to, possibly of later addition, with one lancet on the north, two on the west divided by a twentieth-century door opening, and a blocked pointed doorway at the south end.

The interior is plastered with most fittings removed and twentieth-century flooring. The roofs are arch-braced collar trusses with pierced spandrels and wishbone struts above the collars, resting on thin corbels, with moulded plaster cornices. The transept contains a painted grained gallery front of circa 1870 with cusped diagonal crosses in panels and a large organ. A twentieth-century infill exists below the organ gallery. Circa 1847 stairs with stick balusters and a turned newel are positioned to the right of the north entrance door. The west end was enclosed and altered in the twentieth century, with double pointed doors with cover strips from the nave into the west end, originally external and possibly reset. The short chancel is closed off by a twentieth-century grill with a pointed arch, has a rafter roof and a three-light east window.

An ashlar octagonal font possibly dating to 1847 remains from the original fittings; seats and a pulpit of 1873 have been removed. A brass eagle lectern dates to 1909. A large later nineteenth-century organ occupies the north transept gallery.

The stained glass is notable. In the chancel east window is a three-light window depicting the Light of the World, Ascension and Lamb of God, faded, probably by H. Hughes from 1870 and commissioned as a memorial to Elizabeth Miers (died 1869). Small chancel side lights contain angels and patterned quarries dating to circa 1870. The west window dates to circa 1870 and is similar in character to the east window. In the nave south wall, the first window from the west depicts the Magnificat, 1902 by T.F. Curtis of Curtis, Ward & Hughes in line-engraving style. The second, from 1883, shows Jesus in the Temple by Ward & Hughes. The third and fourth windows, depicting Suffer the Children and Christ Teaching, date to 1875 and are by H. Hughes. The nave north side contains a first window to the left of the transept depicting Charity, circa 1905, by T.F. Curtis, and a second window showing the Angel at the Tomb, circa 1875, similar in style to the south wall third and fourth windows and presumably by H. Hughes. The north transept east window contains a reset piece showing a kneeling child from circa 1880. Two north windows have coloured glass margins.

Memorials include an ornate Gothic memorial to Richard Hill Miers (1803–55) on the nave east wall. A marble plaque with a flaming urn commemorates E.M. Strick (died 1849) and family to 1861, by Rogers of Swansea. The north wall bears an oval marble plaque to R.H. Cox (died 1870) by Currie of London. The south wall contains a neo-Grec memorial to Llewellyn Llewellyn (died 1859), also by Rogers of Swansea.