St John the Baptist, Knaresborough

St John the Baptist is a Grade I parish church on Church Lane, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, the largest church in the town and the seat of the parish in the Diocese of Leeds.

Overview

Historic England records a mainly mid-fifteenth-century parish church with late twelfth-century remains and a restoration of about 1870. Fabric is coursed squared limestone with ashlar and gritstone dressings, under graduated Westmorland slate and lead roofs. The plan is a four-bay nave with central tower, aisles continued past the line of former transepts, clerestory and south porch, and a three-bay chancel with north vestry. The four-stage tower rises over the former crossing; roof-lines of transepts demolished in the fifteenth century remain visible. A slender lead-covered spire is thought to be early sixteenth-century.

Nave arcades have tall octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. St Edmund’s chapel in the south aisle has Early English nail-head and dog-tooth decoration, with crocketed sedilia, piscina and a tomb-recess or Easter sepulchre. The Slingsby chapel at the east end of the north aisle holds seventeenth-century and later family memorials. A fine octagonal fifteenth-century font has an elaborately carved cover of about 1700. Parish history records a church on the site by 1114, when Henry I granted the church at “Cnaresburgh” to the canons of Nostell; the dedication was changed from St Mary after the Reformation. The church is open every day.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1293930
• British Listed Buildings: Church of Saint John the Baptist, Knaresborough