Stone, Buckinghamshire

St. John the Baptist (parish church)

The church of St. John the Baptist, erected in the reign of King Stephen (1135-54), is a cruciform building of stone in the Norman, Early English and Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, small transepts, south porch and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 6 bells: the church has considerable remains of Norman work, especially in the nave arcades, and a very good doorway in the south porch, the chancel and transepts are Early English: the tower is of three stages, with double buttresses at the western angles, and has a parapet with a cornice of masks and a gabled roof: at the south-east angle is a large square turret, with pointed capping, surmounted by a vane: the font, brought from a garden at Lewisham, in Kent, and said to have originally belonged to the church of Hampstead Norris, Berks, whence it was removed about 1767 to Kent, and in 1843 brought to this church, is carved with interlaced work, the rude figure of a salamander, fishes, and other creatures, the idea of the sculptor of this rather notable font was to portray the Blessed Trinity in Their redemptive work upon the soul of man, which is shown in the form of a fish; it is probably an adaptation of Norse mythology to the Christian faith, in the south porch are the remains of a stoup: there is a palimpsest brass inscribed on the one side to Christopher Tharpe, ob. September 28th, 1514, and the other to Thomas Gurney and Agnes his wife, 1520: on the back of the male effigy is the figure of a lady, c. 1440-50 : there is also a brass with a Latin inscription to William Gurney, dated 1475, and one on the north wall to members of the Statham family, placed in 1913; other brasses, placed in the vestry during some restoration of the church, have been lost: the chancel was rebuilt and the nave reseated abont 1843: a gallery has also been removed and a stained west window inserted by a former vicar: in the south wall is a lancet window, inserted 1910, to the memory of Margaret Edmonds Challis, wife of the Rev. J. L. Challis M.A. vicar 1879-1916: in the chancel is a stained window to the Statham family, inserted in 1913. In the churchyard are the remains of a stone cross: the church was restored in 1883 and 1885-90, when the nave and aisle were new-roofed, and a clock presented by Mrs. Bartlett, of Peverel Court, the total cost amounting to £1,997: in 1900 the chancel walls were raised, the chancel new-roofed and re-fitted and an organ chamber built on the north side, the entire cost being about £650: there are 265 sittings.