The tiny two cell church of St John the Baptist, stand alone on a hillside in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Henry Thorold in his Lincolnshire Churches Revisited remarked that it almost appeared to grow out of the hillside. Like many small churches in the Wolds, it is built of greenstone with limestone dressings and some later brick patching. The nave is probably Norman and there is Norman door in the north wall, the rest is mostly 14th century. The south porch with its odd tracery-headed doorway dates from 1743. I've never been inside this church, but have taken photos through the open west window. The interior, long disused, has been stripped of its furniture. The nave is divided from the chancel by a solid wall pierced by a rood screen and beyond it you can glimpse an altar rail. Since 1981 the church has been in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches. The Friends are undertaking a programme of repair for this tiny building, the exterior and roofs were replaced in 2002 and in 2010 they are turning to the interior.
Access: There is plenty of parking close to the church. At present it isn't possible to access the interior of the building.
For more photos see my Flickr folder.
A organisation called Spirit of Sutterby has been established to research the history of the Church and (now deserted) village. In conjunction with Friends of Friendless Churches & the local Group of Parishes, a great deal of progress has been made in the restoration of the Church & services are now conducted from time to time. (See:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spiritofsutterby.co.uk/)