Listed Building: CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST (1201158)

LYNTON AND LYNMOUTH SS7149 WATERSMEET ROAD, Lynmouth 858-1/4/95 (East side) Church of St John the Baptist - GV II Anglican parish church. Foundation stone laid 1869, finished 1870 at cost of »1700. By E Dolby (of Abingdon); N aisle enlarged 1908, cost »600, and tower added 1921, cost »600. Rubble, later sections squared and snecked, ashlar dressings and detail, slate roofs. PLAN: nave with bellcote over W gable, S porch, apsidal chancel, wide gabled N aisle with low tower at E end. In Early English style with some plate tracery lights. EXTERIOR: the nave has a thin saddle-backed bellcote with 2 openings under a blind oculus. This is flush with the main gable which has a quatrefoiled plate rose window set flush above an arcade of 5 arches with pointed arches in voussoirs in 3 coloured stones, on slender red sandstone shafts to a full-width weathered cill, and covering 3 lancets. To each side a deep square buttress with broad offsets. To right is the aisle gable of almost equal height and width, with a 2-light plate tracery window under a drip course; low left is a plank door on strap hinges. Both gables are coped. The S front has 3 paired lancets with plate tracery containing 3:4:3-foil oculi, under a drip-course continued as a string course at springing level. Set back at the right-hand end is the square tower, with a large 2-light casement with drip-course immediately below the crenellated parapet, and a smaller casement below. To the right is a square buttress with offsets. The tower, with similar fenestration to the E, but a door to an escape stair at the mid level, partly covers the E gable to the aisle, with a quatrefoil oculus. The N front has a high gabled entrance porch over a chamfered pointed opening, and with coping. The inner plank door is on decorative strap hinges in a broad chamfered pointed arch and shafts with crude capitals. There are 2 windows as to the S, and 3 deep square buttresses with offsets and plinth. On this side are the original square hopper-heads and downpipes. To the left, slightly set in, is the apse, with 1:1:2 lancets, with head stops to the drip course, above a cill band, and with a high plinth. At a lower level is the vestry, following the apse curve, and abutting an external iron staircase to the E side of the tower; small double lancet window to N, with chamfered edges and incised cross above. INTERIOR: the nave has a trussed rafter roof, on unplastered walls, with chamfered rere-arches and flat cills, all on a floor in small square tiles. A 3-bay arcade has circular columns to square bases and broad square abaci on stylised scrolled leaf capitals. The arches are chamfered to a broad flat intrados, with continuous hoodmould. The chancel, with plain arch to flat intrados and roll-mould edges, is on a total of 5 steps, and has coursed and banded stone to a pointed barrel vault, and apse with chamfered ribs on simple corbels, with a moulded string. The cill-mould is continued as a string course. To the right are 3 sedilia and a piscina in stone, and the organ in an arch. The N aisle, which is as wide as the nave, was enlarged in 1908, and this is reflected in the floor, which is part tile and part wood. It has a roof and rere arches as the nave, and a door at each end. Above the arcade are 6 corbels, possibly remaining from the original roof structure. FITTINGS: hexagonal stone pulpit with cusped panels containing fine carved detail; brass eagle lectern of 1895; low embellished font bowl on free-standing Purbeck shafts. The carved oak choir stalls have a hint of Art Nouveau, and there is a carved wood altar behind a simple brass rail. There is stained glass in the apse only; one of the original lancets is now blocked by the later tower. (Allen NV: Churches and Chapels of Exmoor: Dulverton: 1974-: 62). Listing NGR: SS7244749377