Church of St John the Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

This is a parish church of distinctive character, built in crazed rubble stonework with bands of thin stones marking the sill and impost levels, rock-faced sandstone quoins, and ashlar windows beneath steep slate roofs. The building comprises a nave, chancel, south porch, south-east tower with slated spire, and a north gabled organ-chamber with vestry.

The west end displays four bands of thin stones and is framed by diagonal buttresses and two-step buttresses that bracket the lower half of a large west window. The window has a chamfered sandstone surround and hoodmould. The tracery consists of three lancets with transoms at mid-height, with additional tracery in the head; this appears to have been partly or wholly renewed in concrete in the 20th century. The west gable is coped and shouldered, topped with a stone finial.

The south porch is substantial, with a steep gable and an ashlar pointed doorway that is hollow-moulded with a hoodmould. The entrance has double doors with diagonal boarding. Within the porch, the inner south door has a roll-moulded pointed arch with double cambered-headed doors with diagonally boarded panels.

The nave features rock-faced sandstone buttresses between pointed windows. These windows have ashlar heads and hoodmoulds, with chamfered rock-faced sandstone jambs and ashlar two-light tracery with quatrefoils in the heads—three windows on the south side and four to the north.

The chancel is lower than the nave and has an attached south tower of three stages. The tower's base is high and battered, with clasping buttresses at the angles, also with high bases and long set-offs that reach up to the base of the top stage. The top stage contains paired long bell openings with segmental-pointed ashlar chamfered heads and large ashlar corbels beneath the eaves of the slated spire. The spire is broached with four small timber lucarnes set low, each with a metal three-sided roof, and four similar but smaller vents in the diagonal faces. The tower's south side displays a cross in stonework above the second stage and a lancet in the lowest stage; the east side has a door with a segmental-pointed arch. The chancel's south side has no windows. The east end has a coped gable and a three-light pointed window with ashlar tracery and hoodmould.

The chancel north side features a gabled organ chamber, dated to around 1925, with a small flat-roofed vestry to the east. The organ chamber has a reset two-light north window, matching those of the nave.

The interior walls are of pale brick with thin decorative bands of red brick and encaustic tile—one at the level of the capitals, the other at the level of the corbels of the colonnettes that carry the roof trusses. Alternating buff and white bricks frame the pointed window reveals and chancel arch. A plastered dado runs around the walls.

The roof structure consists of thin arch-braced collar trusses, with braces carried down low onto short colonnettes with moulded square caps at the level of the upper decorative band. Marble shafts and corbels sit at the level of the lower band. The broad four-bay nave roof is open to view.

A tall pointed chancel arch of three orders of moulded brick divides the spaces; the inner two orders are round-moulded and the outer order is hollow-moulded with a hoodmould. The inner arch rests on corbelled colonnettes as in the nave. A pointed door at the east end of the nave, to the left of the chancel arch, provides access. One step rises into the chancel, which is considerably narrower than the nave and has a similar three-bay roof on corbelled paired colonnettes. A timber lintel spans the opening to the north organ chamber. A plaque within the organ chamber records the addition of both the chamber and vestry in memory of K Jones, who died in 1922.

The sanctuary floor is laid in plain three-colour tiles. The east window has an ashlar frame with column shafts and hoodmould. An ashlar cusped piscina with a moulded gabled hood mould sits on the south wall. A broad segmental-pointed tall entry leads into the base of the tower.

The church contains several notable furnishings. An ashlar octagonal font rests on an octagonal shaft. An ornate brass eagle lectern post-dates 1895. A Gothic panelled pulpit was installed after 1922. Gothic stalls of 1904 feature colonnettes to the bench ends, tall backs with a pierced band of cusped triangles, and similarly cusped heads to arcaded fronts. Fine brass rails of 1904 comprise two round rails on four standards with pointed arches on twisted shafts with Gothic leaf scrolls. An oak Gothic reredos of 1918 displays eight blind traceried panels between tall side pieces with crocketted gables and finials. An oak altar with traceried panels dates to the early 20th century.

The stained glass includes several works: in the nave south side, the first window shows "Suffer the Children" (post-1938) by Wippell & Co of Exeter, signed by G. Cooper-Abbs; the second window, post-1884, depicts "Angel at the Tomb," possibly by Mayer of Munich; the third, post-1904, shows two saints commemorating two brothers; the large east window displays the "Sermon on the Mount" of early 20th-century date by Heaton, Butler & Bayne of London, dedicated to Kate Jones who died in 1901. On the north side, the third window shows Ann Griffiths and St David, dated 1984 by Celtic Studios; the fourth window depicts Dorcas and Joanna (post-1932). Memorials include a marble scroll to W. Gould (died 1902) and a brass plaque to Mrs Williams, the caretaker (died 1905).

An early Christian inscribed stone is housed in the porch.