Listed Building: CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST (1187146)

Parish Church. Late C13 and C14 with mid C16 alterations, extensive repairs c1819, further alteration in 1855 and 1916, and extensions in 1984. Ashlar and coursed rubble coal measures sandstone, with coped gables, moulded finials, and graduated slate and lead roof coverings. West tower, with slender octagonal spire, nave, north and south aisles, south aisle doorway, chancel, vestry and C20 service extension. Four stage tower, rising from a deeply moulded three tier plinth, with shallow gabled diagonal buttresses, terminated at crocketed corner pinnacles. Moulded stringcourses delineate tower stages. Pointed-arched Perp 2-light windows to bell stage, all incorporating clock faces. Hoodmoulds to windows project into fourth stage and from part of the stringcourse. Embattled Perp ashlar parapet, with moulded tabling below, and grotesque spouts. Spire with two tiers of lucarnes. Tower west doorway with deeply moulded pointed arch, beneath a hoodmould with label stops. One single order of C13 columns, 2-light Y-tracery window above, with ogee hoodmould forming part of the stringcourse. South porch with shallow gable, with flat gable copings. Moulded pointed arch to porch doorway, the inner arch springing from moulded imposts. Hoodmould with carved stops. Inner doorway. with steeply pointed triple stepped doorway. Roof has two shallow arched roof trusses, with moulded principal rafters rising from moulded wall posts. Trusses have carved bosses, and support a single purlin and ridge purlin. Five bay south aisle with stepped angle buttresses to ends, and shallow buttresses beneath windows to the east of the porch bay. Shallow ashlar parapet above stringcourse, pierced by clusters of three trefoil lights, inserted 1866, to light galleries. The two bays to the east of the porch have late C13 3-light pointed windows with intersecting tracery beneath hoodmoulds. The eastern-most bay has a Perp 3-light flat headed window with ogee heads to the lights, with double daggers above. East end window of 5-lights with intersecting tracery, the top intersections replaced by a quatrefoil. Similar 4-light window, but without quatrefoil to west end. Nave clerestory with three 2-light flat headed windows with trefoil heads. Moulded stringcourse links windows heads with a shallow parapet above. Three bay chancel, rising from a two tier moulded plinth, the ridge taller than that of the nave, with deeply moulded surrounds to pointed Dec windows with restored intersecting tracery, and with cusped quatrefoils at the heads. The window heads rise to the level of a moulded stringcourse, below an ashlar parapet with serpentine decoration. Below the central window, and off-centre, a priest's doorway with ogee-headed surround, beneath a stepped stringcourse linking the chancel window cills. Oak plank door. At the west end, at the junction with the nave, a set back panel, in order to avoid obstructing the window to the Lady Chapel. Between the windows are tall stepped and gabled buttresses, with blind sub-cusping, and pinnacles to gable heads. These are repeated as clasping buttresses at the east end. Tall 7-light east window, with deeply moulded Dec surround, originally with Dec tracery, but now with moulded major and minor mullions with transoms, inserted after the collapse of the original tracery in 1563. Two storeyed vestry and sacristy to chancel north wall, with gabled and pinnacled angle buttresses. East wall with flat headed 2-light window beneath a hoodmould with stops to ground floor, 2-light first floor window with ogee heads. Octagonal stair tower with squat spire to angle of west wall and chancel, with lancets and lucarnes, and a four-centred arched doorway to the west wall. North aisle with C13 pointed 2-light windows, with quatrefoils to the heads of the mullions. Ashlar parapet with clusters of trefoil lights, as in south aisle. West end with 2-light Y-tracery window. C20 link passage and extension to rear of north aisle. Interior. Tall stepped and chamfer tower arch, and a cluster of half shafts with simply moulded capitals. Four bay nave arcade with stepped and chamfered arches, almost semi-circular, but just pointed. Circular arcade piers, with simply moulded capitals, and with roll and hollow mouldings to the base of each column. Plain square plinths. Arcade terminates at pendant corbels in chancel arch wall. Nave clerestory above arcade, the window adjacent to the chancel arch blocked and, almost at the junction of the nave north arcade and the chancel arch, an ogee headed rood loft doorway with a moulded surround. Stepped and chamfered pointed chancel arch, with the line of a deeply pitched earlier nave roof clearly visible from the nave. King post trusses with cambered tie beams supporting a single purlin roof. Raking side struts support the purlins, and the ridge is carried on longitudinal braces from the king posts. Double stepped and chamfered chancel arch, with simple mouldings to base and capitals. There are squints on either side of the archway, with ogee headed arches. Chancel north wall, with ogee headed doorway beneath a stepped hoodmould, forming part of the continuous stringcourse which links the cills of the chancel windows. Doorway to chancel south wall, with depressed pointed arch beneath a stepped hoodmould, linked to the continuous string. Dec triple sedilia with sub-cusped heads which have crockets and finials. Octagonal shafts with moulded,capitals and bases separate the seats. Detached piscina with ogee head, within which are two smaller ogee-headed arches and a central shaft. The moulded string is carried over the piscina, as a hoodmould. Simple piscina to south aisle chapel south wall. Font against tower arch, with plain octagonal medieval bowl, set on octagonal stem and stepped base of 1916. Fluted C18 font near nave north door. Furnishings. Elaborately carved C17 oak pulpit with hexagonal drum, the facets of which have arcade decoration and which are separated by carved colonnettes, linking carved panelled bands above and below. The pulpit was lowered in 1917, and the staircase replaced by the present C19 cast iron spiral stair. Altar and reredos, 1907, by Advent Henstone of Tideswell. Some remaining parts of C15 choir stalls, incorporated within C19 benches. Fragments of medieval glass are found in two chancel south wall windows, and one to chancel north wall. Monuments. Brass to Thomas Godfrey, d1399, Rector and his brother Richard, in the chancel floor. Brass, comprising seven plates to John Fanshawe, d1580, together with his wife Margaret, and their children, on chancel north wall. Alabaster effigy to chest tomb, Mid C15 to Sir Richard Barley, with side and end panel depicting angels holding shields. The church contains over 120 brasses, monuments and memorials, many of which pave the nave and chancel. Parish chest, with seven lock hasps, against the south aisle wall.