Overview
St John the Baptist's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Parson Drove, in north Cambridgeshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands at the east end of the village, on the north side of the B1169 road, some west of Wisbech.
History
The church was originally a chapelry of Leverington parish. Most of the fabric of the present church is from the late 15th or early 16th century. In 1895 the nave roof was reconstructed.
Exterior
The church is constructed mainly in rubble stone and brick. The tower is partly faced with Barnack limestone. The roof of the nave is slated, and the aisles and south porch are roofed in lead. Its plan consists of a nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles with a vestry at the east end of the north aisle, north and south porches, a chancel, and a west tower. The tower is in three stages on a plinth. It has angle buttresses, an embattled parapet, and a stair turret on the northeast. In the lowest stage is a west doorway and, at a higher level, three-light windows on the north, south and west sides. There is a lancet window on each side of the middle stage. The bell openings have two lights. Beneath the parapet, the cornice has two gargoyles on each side. On the south side of the plinth is a re-used 12th-century stone carved with the figure of a man.
Along the clerestory on each side are six three-light square-headed windows. The south aisle has a three-light east window, six two-light windows along the south wall, and a two-light west window. The south porch has two-light windows in its east and west walls. The north aisle includes a three-light east window, five two-light windows along the north wall, and a two-light west window. The east window in the chancel has three lights.
Interior
Inside the church, both arcades have seven bays. The lower stage of the tower internally has vaulting carved with devices including Tudor roses and grotesques. In the body of the church, the roofs have corbels carved with grotesque heads. In the north aisle is a piscina with a sharply pointed head.
Associated features
In the Wisbech and Fenland Museum is a pillar piscina that was formerly in the church. It was donated to the museum in 1872.
See also
*List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in the East of England