St John the Baptist

Introduction

The church was built as the chapel to the Hospital of Saint John and is attached to its north-western angle.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of ashlar with edged herringbone tooling, and has a plain tile roof with crested ridge tiles. The church is in Perpendicular style with a 4-bay nave, 3-bay chancel, north-east oratory, and south-east chapel. The nave has a pointed west doorway with moulded surround and hood mould terminating in foliated stops. The west window has 2 lights to each side of a central blind arch with a nodding ogee over a statue of a bishop.

The church has an octagonal bellcote with scaled pointed stone roof surmounted by a cross. The chancel has a pointed east window of 3 cinquefoil headed lights and Perpendicular tracery, with hood mould terminating in angels bearing shields. The interior is sumptuously decorated including much painted decoration. The nave roof has 2 pairs of purlins, a ridge piece and collar with curved struts, and 3 tiers of paired curved wind braces.

The chancel roof has arch braced collars, the braces moulded and springing from octagonal posts with capitals on corbels carved as angels bearing shields. The pulpit is in the south-east corner of the nave, quarter octagon on corbels. The church has 4 brass chandeliers in the nave. The benches have elaborate poppy heads and backs decorated with openwork tracery.

An elaborately carved crucifix is suspended over the sanctuary. The marble altar has 5 bays with cusped heads, the central niche containing a figure of the Virgin, the outer niches figures of 2 of the Apostles, and the others figures of angels. There are monuments to the sixteenth and seventeenth Earls of Shrewsbury, who died in 1852 and 1856, one to each side of the altar. The stained glass is good throughout, especially the east window by Thomas Willement depicting the Madonna and Child and John the Baptist. Pugin's screen has been removed to the Birmingham Museum.