Building record 0070200000 - ST JOHN THE BAPTIST'S CHURCH, STONE

Dimensions - Length 38m, Width 16m.
Plan Form - Cruciform.
Consecrated 1 June 1273 by Reginald, Bishop of Gloucester. Built on an artificial mound (B1).
Grade II+. Parish Church. Stone. Tiled roof with ridge chesting. Norman nave and N. doorway. C13 transepts. C14 W. tower with C19 saddleback roof, stair turret to S.E., projecting parapet with carved corbel heads and gargoyles. Restored C19, chancel 1845. Decorated style traceried S.aisle windows, C19 S. porch over Norman door with zig-zag arch, capitals with palmette and leaf motifs, lancet windows to transepts and chancel. Interior: N. arcade is Norman with carved pier capitals, W. bay C13. C14 tower arch. Font Norman, originally at Hampstead Norrey, Berks, brought here in 1845. Cylindrical carved with interlace patterns and scene of man fighting beast. Brasses in nave to William Gurney 1472 and Thomas Gurney 1520. Benches with poppyheads in nave. RCHM I p. 290 MON.2 (part)(B7).
Included in a collection of sketches of Buckinghamshire churches by Charlotte Pigott in the early 1840s (B9).


The Parish Church of St John the Baptist is built of limestone rubble with courses of rough dressed stones in the walls of the chancel. The dressings are of stone. The roofs are tiled, except that of the North aisle which is covered with lead. The earliest remaining detail is of ca.1170, when the church consisted of a chancel, the same width as the present chancel but considerably shorter, and three bays of the present nave and North aisle. An aisleless nave probably existed at an earlier date. The South transept was added ca.1210, and the nave was lengthened one bay towards the West ca.1230. The chancel was rebuilt and lengthened in the second half of the C13th, and ca.1280, the first bay of the North aisle was widened to form a North transept. The West tower was added about the middle of the C14th, and a South porch in the C15th. Windows were inserted in the C15th and C16th. In 1843-5 the chancel was rebuilt and the church restored; the chancel is said to be on the foundations of the C12th chancel, a few of the original stones being reused. In 1885-90, the church was again restored and the clerestory windows, which were modern, were blocked. The South doorway was moved six feet towards the West, and the South porch was rebuilt reusing some of the original stones (B3).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.