Listed Building: Church of St. John the Baptist (11/60)

Church. Built 1851 by Charles Vickers of London at a cost of £2,000 in Norman and Early English styles, retaining Transitional north arcade of medieval church. Coursed squared limestone and plain-tile roof. Chancel, vestry, nave and north aisle. 2-bay chancel has 3-light stepped lancet east window and paired lancets either side with dog-tooth ornament and hood moulds. A lancet window to south-west with hood mould and priest's door to south with Caernarvon-arched head with dog-tooth ornament. Chamfered plinth, moulded string course, stepped over priest's door, corbel table and buttresses to angles and below east window. Vestry and stair to pulpit over boiler-house to north side of chancel has small chamfered lancet windows, Caernarvon-arched door at basement level, cornice with stiff-leaf decoration, lean-to slate roof, and circular stone flue. Nave has roll-moulded round-arched windows and pilaster buttresses to south. South door in gabled projection has two orders of shafts, the innermost shafts with toothed spiral moulding, scalloped capitals, and round-arched head with chevron and beak-head ornament. Round-arched windows to west end and stone bell-cote to west gable with a pair of round-headed arches and cross to gable. North aisle has similar windows. Buttresses to west angles and chamfered stone eaves to nave and aisle. Interior: chancel has 3-bay stepped arcade to pulpit stair with circular shafts, stiff-leaf capitals and trefoiled double-chamfered arches. Many-moulded round-arched chancel arch with one order of shafts and corbels innermost with elaborate stiff-leaf capitals. Stone pulpit incorporated in structure on north side of chancel arch and corbelled out from wall. Nave has 4-bay arcade of former church, late C12 or early C13, with round piers, capitals carved with stylized foliage, that furthest west incorporates serpents with intertwined tails, those to 2 easternmost piers have heads; round arches with dog-tooth. Chancel has scissor truss roof, nave has arch-braced collar trusses. Tub font with intersecting round-headed arcading. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: 1973, p251)

Record last edited

Jul 5 2021 11:29AM