Church of St John the Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a coursed Pennant stone church with ashlar dressings, steep slate roofs and coped gables, built in severe early Gothic style with emphasis on form over decoration rather than elaborate ornamentation. The plan comprises a nave and long chancel under a single roof, a large south transept, the gable of an unbuilt north transept, a south porch, a northeast vestry and a west bellcote.

The west end is the most striking feature. A large six-light window is grouped as a central two-light with roundel and hoodmould, flanked by two lights on each side with stepped-down heads. Above are stone voussoirs. The deep moulded ashlar sill steps down on each side, with the walling below slightly forward of the main wall-plane. A trefoil-cusped chamfered doorway with arched hoodmould sits beneath. Broad ashlar angle buttresses with two-step plinths and one set-off below the gable shoulders frame the composition. On each side of the central two-light stands a tall thin ring-shafted column carried from the sill up to support the pointed-arched base of the ashlar bellcote, the arch framing a vesica gable opening. The bellcote itself has raised side piers, two pointed openings with miniature clasping buttresses, and a small cusped lancet in the steep gable.

The nave is lit by paired cusped lancets. To the left is one pair; to the right are two pairs, flanking a gabled south porch. The porch has a pointed chamfered entry with hoodmould, stone voussoirs and coped gable with cross finial. Small cusped lancets light each side wall of the porch, and an inner pointed south doorway has double boarded doors.

The large south transept has chamfered quoins to its angles and windowless sides. A long two-light window with roundel and hoodmould carrying carved stops sits under a trefoil in the gable apex. The chancel's south side has three well-spaced lancets and a heavy sill band carried around ashlar angle buttresses to the east end, where it steps up beneath the east window. The buttresses are ashlar-faced with chamfered plinths, set-offs above the sill band level and gabled caps. The very large east window comprises five stepped lancets under a single pointed hoodmould with carved stops and stone voussoirs, a trefoil filling the gable apex.

The chancel's north side has a lean-to vestry to the left, with an east end cusped lancet and a west shouldered-arched door. To the right is a single lancet matching those on the south. The north transept retains wall stubs for a planned extension and has a two-light long window with roundel like the south transept, trefoil in the apex. The nave north side has a 20th-century lean-to and two pairs of lancets as on the south.

The interior is tall and spacious, dominated by open truss roofs with high collars and deep arched braces. The nave has five main trusses and intermediate trusses without bracing; corbels support the main trusses. The chancel roof is slightly higher and narrower, more ornate with windbracing and trusses resting on ashlar corbelled column shafts with moulded capitals and carved corbels. Crossing trusses rest on similar corbelled columns, paired in the west angles and single columns on the east walls of the transepts. The chancel is narrower overall.

Walls are plastered with ashlar dressings to segmental pointed surrounds for the windows. The transepts' two-light long windows sit in big pointed shafted surrounds with keeled arch moulding. The chancel has a stone flagged floor, a pointed north vestry door, and two steps: one before the vestry, the other at the sanctuary with timber rails carrying column shafts and pointed cusped arches. Patterned tiles cover the sanctuary floor. The very large east window is set in a moulded pointed surround with angle shafts and splayed sill. A late 20th-century lightweight inserted meeting room with low ceiling occupies the nave west end.

The fittings are substantial and significant. A large and ornate later 19th-century Gothic pine organ case occupies the south transept, with painted pipes traditionally said to have arrived in 1880 from Exeter via St Andrew's Church, Cardiff, though such a large piece moving twice so soon seems improbable. Three fine hanging brass coronae on twisted iron rods, each originally with five gas lamps now converted to electric, hang overhead. Four small brass wall-lamps light the chancel. A severe ashlar octagonal font with chamfered top and bottom to a deep bowl sits on a quatrefoil squat column. A hexagonal timber pulpit has cusped traceried blind panels and angle buttressing; a matching reading desk bears poppyhead finials and is attached to stalls with pierced frieze of square quatrefoils. Pitch pine nave pews fill the floor. A timber reredos displays painted texts of the Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments and Creed.

The fine east window stained glass dates to 1863-4, containing 15 scenes in bright colours on blue grounds, each within an oval frame, probably by Wailes. It was given in memory of Anthony Hill, the founder of the church. A marble scroll plaque on the south wall commemorates Hill, described as 'for many years joint and of late sole proprietor of the Plymouth Iron Works', who died in 1862 and was buried beneath the chancel. The memorial is by H. Cade of Bristol. A shafted memorial to Reverend W. Green (died 1891) is by C. Price of Troedyrhiw, with a matching plaque opposite to Reverend P. Williams (died 1926). The north wall carries a marble plaque to S.B. Edwardes of Rhydygors, Carmarthen, and Plas Brynteg (1824-79), by W. Davies of Carmarthen, and brass plaques including one with a design of two mourning soldiers to Private J. Ball (died at Pretoria 1900), and another to William Lewis of Fernbank (died 1906), 'erected by the surface workers of Messrs Nixon collieries Merthyr Vale and other friends'.