Church of St John the Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a large Grade I listed medieval church built of roughly coursed grey rubble with grey or yellow ashlar dressings, roofed in slate with stone apex finials. The building comprises a dominant west tower, nave, south porch, chancel, northeast chapel and north wing.

The West Tower

The most striking feature is the large west tower with a saddleback roof and embattled and corbelled parapets to the north and south only. The stone tiled gable coping is surmounted by a compass weather vane. Both the north and south faces display four storeys of small tower openings, some round or square headed, with one trefoil headed example on the south side. Some openings have relieving arches and chamfered surrounds. Massive angle buttresses with deep offsets sit at each corner.

The east face of the tower contains a large shouldered opening above a massive corbel table, which presumably once supported a timber platform. A wide relieving arch spans above the steep pitched nave roof. The weathering of old stone slates is visible just above the present roof level, with a tiny light incorporated above the swept eaves on the south side.

The west face features a face corbel, reportedly depicting John the Baptist, above a louvred gable opening and a clock. A three-light window with cusped panel tracery and hoodmould sits in a deep concave surround finishing on a sillband that defines the west entrance. The late medieval pointed arched west doorway is moulded and has small shallow attached triple shafts with polygonal capitals standing on a stone bench. These shafts rise at the sides to form crocketed finials incorporating shield-bearing angels. A cross rises from the apex of the ogee arched outer order and interrupts the sillband. An eye level recess stands to the right of the door, with a stone step at ground level.

The South Porch

The south porch is a deep late medieval structure with deep, swept and overhanging eaves, ridge stones, coping and kneelers, and deep quoins. The shallow moulded basket arched south doorway has a raised plinth standing on a ledge, a hoodmould with plain angled stops, and a keystone decorated with a tree motif. A blank rectangular recess appears above the doorway with a sundial positioned below a decorative apex stone.

The interior of the porch is broad with stone benches to both sides, a stone flagged floor, wall monuments, and a re-set slab bearing a floriated cross. The roof comprises a two-bay arch braced structure with a lowered ridge beam. A moulded similar south doorway with broached base opens into the church, with a small niche above it under a relieving arch. A decorated stoup with stiff leaf decoration stands nearby. The south nave has Perpendicular windows (restored in the 19th century) on either side of the porch, each with three lights and voussoirs.

The Chancel

The south side of the chancel contains a square headed priests' doorway with a heavy hoodmould featuring angel stops, and a pointed arched hollow chamfered doorway with decorative spandrels. To its left is a square headed two-light window with a hoodmould continuous with the door mould. The southeast window matches the south nave style but is smaller and retains its original hoodmould. A weathered wall monument and battered plinth are visible.

Tiered diagonal buttresses of large dressed stone blocks stand at the southeast and northeast ends, terminating in bulky finials with crockets. Gargoyles sit at each corner. A Perpendicular east window matches the nave pattern. Some lime render survives on the walls. The north windows serving both the chancel and chapel are two-light square headed openings.

The north side of the church has similar windows on either side of later extensions.

The Churchyard

The church stands within a large roughly rectangular walled churchyard with main entrance and lychgate to the southwest and an additional entrance to the northeast. The churchyard contains monuments to many locally important families, including the Brogdens (founders of 19th-century Porthcawl) and the Knights (Lords of the Manor). It also holds numerous graves of sailors and rescuers drowned in the nearby Bristol Channel, including a group of three mid-19th-century headstones southwest of the porch with discursive inscriptions. A notable headstone to the southeast commemorates James John and his two sons, who were sea rescuers drowned in 1839.

Interior Features

The interior is limewashed with exposed dressings. Nave windows feature deep splays with high pointed chamfered arches. The south door has a high round headed arched surround. Internal window masonry is partly original and partly renewed during the 1860s restoration. A damaged shallow canopied niche is set in the east splay of the southeast window with an adjacent piscina.

The pointing tower arch consists of giant blocks and is high and wide, with the wall rounded into piers and no capitals. The tower entrance lies in the east face of the southwest wall, with two tiers of windows now visible at ground floor level. The splays demonstrate very thick walls with internally chamfered lights to the tower staircase. The tower contains a ring of eight bells, four of 17th-century origin (though recast), mounted in a cast iron bell frame by Llewellins and James of Bristol dated 1906.

The chancel arch is simple and pointed with a very deep plinth following the exterior pattern, shallow capitals, and a support for the former rood loft with squints above both north and south. Some fragmentary stone carving survives on a ledge, including a floriated cross. Access to the loft was through a chamfered Tudor arched doorway in the north wall. Steps to the right lead to a high level square headed access doorway.

Steps to the left lead to an extremely rare stone pulpit protruding from the north wall, featuring figures in relief depicting the Flagellation with vine scroll above. The pulpit was remodelled in the early 19th century and originally protruded further into the nave. The chamfered four-centred arch behind displays two angels holding a chalice. Fragmentary wallpainting survives on and adjacent to the doorway. Further wallpainting depicting John the Baptist remains on the northeast nave corner, formerly protected by a monument.

The nave roof comprises six bays with boarding and arch bracing, featuring a low ridge beam. Each truss springs from boss-like corbels. Nave wall monuments from the 17th and 18th centuries are rectangular with semi-circular heads. A low octagonal font with lead lining and renewed cover stands in the nave, with a stoup bearing stiff leaf decoration by the south door. Stained glass includes a southwest window of around 1919 by Henry Halliday and a tower west window by R J Newbery before 1907.

The chancel arch displays an outer order on its east side matching an outer order rood support on the west. The north chancel window has a large chamfered rectangular lintel. The chancel and nave floors are level with ledgers and slabs in the chancel, while three stone steps lead to the sanctuary, which features unusual pale encaustic tiles with dark insets and borders.

The sanctuary contains an unusual and massive stone mensa, a long rectangular slab with chamfered edges, lacking the usual five consecration crosses though two marks are possibly identifiable as such. The piscina is acutely pointed with crudely moulded surrounds in the southeast.

The chancel roof is a four-bay wagon roof with reeded beams and gilded bosses. The moulded wallplate bears painted shields depicting the Instruments of the Passion. A stained glass east window of 1877 by Morris and Company depicts Christ between Saints Peter and John, with figures designed by Burne Jones.

The chancel walls display monuments to local families, including the Knights and Loughers of Tythegston. A neoclassical monument by Wood commemorates Henry Knight, who died in 1825 and held the rank of Vice Lieutenant of the County. A grand baroque monument honours the Loughers of Tythegston, who died in 1686 and 1722.